The Milne Bay River in New Guinea. New Guinea boasts a rich diversity of species and languages, which is coming under increasing pressure from historical and contemporary human-induced environmental changes. With the loss of indigenous languages, knowledge of native species and their uses (for example, for medicinal purposes) is also at risk of being lost. During the European colonial era, New Guinea was occupied by the Netherlands, Great Britain and Germany.
Photo Credit: © Flickr by Alan & Flora Botting
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Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary: Biocultural Diversity Loss and European Colonialism
The Core Concept: A cross-national study establishing that historical European colonialism is a primary, shared driver behind the global endangerment of both biological species and indigenous languages.
Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike models that focus solely on modern anthropogenic or climate-driven factors, this approach measures "biocultural diversity"—the intersecting vulnerabilities of ecosystems and linguistic communities. It demonstrates that the duration of colonial occupation directly correlates with current extinction risks driven by invasive species introduction, systemic economic restructuring, and socio-economic displacement.
Major Frameworks/Components:
- Biocultural Hotspot Mapping: Identifying global regions, particularly island nations in Oceania and East Asia (e.g., New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan), where both flora/fauna and languages face critical, overlapping threats.
- Colonial Legacy Modeling: Quantifying the long-term ecological and cultural impacts of European occupation, introduced diseases, and violent conflicts on local environments and populations.
- Island Vulnerability Dynamics: Highlighting the amplified risks for small-scale island ecosystems and language communities due to concentrated habitat loss, high sensitivity to invasive species, and demographic shifts such as youth outmigration.
Branch of Science: Biodiversity Research, Conservation Ecology, Historical Linguistics, and Environmental Sociology.
Future Application: The development of integrated, biocultural conservation frameworks that concurrently protect ecological habitats and indigenous cultural heritage, providing a strategic blueprint to mitigate the socio-environmental pressures of modern globalization.
Why It Matters: The research underscores the intrinsic link between natural and cultural landscapes, emphasizing that effective modern conservation efforts cannot succeed without accounting for the lasting systemic impacts of historical human interventions and colonial legacies.
Human activities have always shaped both biological and cultural diversity. An international team led by the University of Vienna has now investigated the link between the threat to species and that to languages. Linguists and biodiversity researchers identified a common key factor: European colonialism. The study has recently been published in the journal People and Nature.
Around one million species and almost 50 percent of the world's languages are threatened with extinction. A team of researchers led by the University of Vienna with contributions from Utrecht University has compiled a cross-national record of the number of threatened animal species and languages and identified global hotspots where both are particularly at risk. In a second step, they examined the current and historical factors, shaping these patterns of threat.
Hotspots of threatened biocultural diversity (species and languages) are found particularly on islands in Oceania and East Asia, such as New Zealand, Japan and Taiwan. Hotspots of animal endangerment are also found in other (sub-)tropical island nations such as Madagascar, Haiti and Mauritius, whilst language endangerment is more concentrated in the Americas, southern Africa and Australia.
European colonialism is a key common factor in the threat
Despite varying hotspots of threat, the results reveal a striking commonality: "Beyond the expected current causes of the loss of biocultural diversity, our models showed that European colonialism has left a lasting impact on the threat to languages and species," says biodiversity researcher and study lead Bernd Lenzner from the University of Vienna.
Regions that were formerly occupied by one or more European powers show the highest levels of threat to both biological and linguistic diversity. "This effect becomes all the more pronounced the longer a particular country was under colonial occupation," adds Lenzner. European colonialism led to profound economic and social changes, for example through the spread of invasive species, introduced diseases and violent conflicts with local communities.
Island regions are particularly at risk
"Islands are particularly vulnerable to the loss of both species and languages," says linguist and lead author Hannes Fellner from the University of Vienna, adding: "Due to their small size, species populations are more vulnerable to disruption from invasive species or habitat loss. Similarly, language communities on islands are often smaller, with fewer active speakers per language. Furthermore, younger generations are increasingly migrating away, which increases the pressure on linguistic diversity."
Advancing globalization highlights the relevance of the current findings
The study's findings underscore how important it is to understand the historical impacts of human activity. "The effects of the colonial legacy continue to shape both natural and cultural landscapes and influence the patterns of diversity we observe today," summarizes Bernd Lenzner. Hannes Fellner adds: "These findings are highly relevant in the context of advancing globalization, where similar – or even more intense – large-scale interventions in cultural and environmental systems can have long-term consequences that cannot yet be fully foreseen."
Published in journal: People and Nature
Title: Legacy effects of European colonialism on hotspots of biocultural diversity threat
Authors: Bernd Lenzner, Andreas Baumann, Sietze Norder, Franz Essl, and Hannes A. Fellner
Source/Credit: Universität Wien
Reference Number: ss042126_01
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