Conservation aas ccultural aand ppolitical ppractice
TThe study of biocultural diversity involves
a search for patterns across landscapes. As
an inherently spatial phenomenon, biocul-
tural diversity can readily be explored
through the use of GIS. We report here on
preliminary results of an effort to develop a
GIS to map and catalog biocultural diversity
on a global scale. We also discuss potential
relevant factors in the creation, mainte-
nance and loss of biocultural diversity that
can be demonstrated through a GIS. As
research on biocultural diversity moves from
demonstrating the relationship between bio-
logical and cultural diversity to actually
exploring mutual influence or even causal
factors, it becomes increasingly important to
be able to recognise spatially distributed
patterns. GIS provides a powerful tool in
this analysis while also helping guide further
areas of inquiry.
In the Fall of 2003 we were contacted by
Terralingua, a Washington, D.C. based NGO
dedicated to the conservation of biocultural
diversity, about developing a GIS for biocul-
tural diversity. Earlier work by researchers
associated with Terralingua at developing
GIS maps of biocultural diversity had yield-
ed promising results. Most notable of these
efforts was a collaboration with World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF) which resulted in a
map that demonstrated the distribution of
ethnolinguistic groups through the Global
200 Ecoregions identified by WWF^1. We
immediately saw the possibilities for further
development of a GIS in this area and
began work in January 2004.
Development of the GIS
We began the project by developing a
series of working questions to guide us in
the development of the GIS. After develop-
ing a list we then attempted to group the
specific questions together into a few main
questions to keep in mind. These questions
provide the “why” behind the GIS. As GIS is
an inherently powerful and even seductive
technology, it is easy to fall into a mode
where the development of
the maps themselves
becomes viewed as the
end, rather than the
means to explore a partic-
ular phenomenon. By
keeping the following
questions in mind we
sought to avoid heading in such a direction.
Our main working questions are: 1) Is there
a shared pattern in the spatial distribution
of biological and cultural diversity world-
wide? 2) What factors influence, or drive,
the distribution of biological and cultural
diversity? 3) What are the factors that con-
tribute to maintenance and loss of linguistic
and biological diversity? 4) What are the
effects of globalisation on linguistic and bio-
logical diversity? Our most immediate con-
cern, however, was to accurately depict the
distribution of linguistic diversity and biolog-
ical diversity and to date we have mostly
focused on this problem.
We also brainstormed on potential data
sources to add to the database. As these
additional data layers are added to the GIS
database, it becomes possible to explore
more complex patterns and relationships
amongst the data. These data can show
patterns of association that can then be
tested through rigorous statistical analyses.
We developed a long “wish list” of data for
possible inclusion in the global database if it
were available. For example, language dis-
tribution, global distribution of species (flora
and fauna), global distribution of human
populations, global development indices,
quantitative measures of species endemism,
climate and precipitation data, agricultural
intensiveness, soil distribution, density of
Development oof aa GGIS ffor GGlobal BBiocultural DDiversity
John RRichard SStepp, SSarah CCervone, HHector CCastaneda, AAva LLasseter, GGabriela
Stocks aand YYael GGichon
...our mmost iimmediate
concern wwas tto aaccu-
rately ddepict tthe ddis-
tribution oof llinguistic
diversity aand bbiologi-
cal ddiversity....
