Terralingua and Langscape Magazine

10/14/2026

Indigenous and farming communities in South Asia experience forests, animals, and spirits as part of one shared, living world.

In “Biocultural Entanglements,” Helina Jolly walks with Kattunayakan communities in Wayanad, India, and farming communities around Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka to show that unity in biocultural diversity is already being lived.

Read the full story: https://terralingua.org/stories/biocultural-entanglements/

10/13/2026

What does it mean to be “united in biocultural diversity”? Explore this question – and other ideas – with us in a live, thought-provoking event on Thursday, November 5.

This gathering is inspired by the latest issue of Langscape Magazine: “Unity in Biocultural Diversity: A Different World is Possible.” 🌿🌏

Host Luisa Maffi will join in the conversation with three guest speakers to discuss some of the challenges we must confront and opportunities we can seize if we want to create a world of unity in biocultural diversity – a world in which the diversity of life in nature and culture is valued, protected, and perpetuated for generations to come.

🗓️ Thursday, November 5, 2026
🕙 16:00 UTC | 11:00am New York | 19:00 Istanbul | 23:00 Bangkok

All registrants, even those unable to attend, will receive a link to the recorded event. For those unable to attend, we invite you to pre-submit questions for the guests; the link to do so will be provided when you register.

Save the date and be part of this meaningful global conversation. Register via: https://luma.com/o98nevee

10/12/2026

In 1977, Indigenous delegates at a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva proposed transforming October 12 from a celebration of Columbus into a day of solidarity with and in recognition of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. Fifteen years later, in 1992, Berkeley, California, became the first U.S. city to officially observe Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Today, take time to learn about the Indigenous Nations whose lands you live on, and to listen to the stories they are telling in their own words.

10/12/2026

Case studies from Riau and Jambi show how community expertise influences species selection, collection timing, and cultural practices, improving seedling survival. Researchers from Riau University, Indonesia and the Earth Observatory of Singapore call for adaptive management and sustainable finance models that keep communities engaged in restoration work, and find that integrating Indigenous and local community knowledge into seed propagation can strengthen forest restoration across Southeast Asia.

Since the launch of global restoration initiatives such as the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), large-scale tree planting has become the hallmark of many restoration projects. Ambitious targets, such as The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign and the World Economic...

10/11/2026

Poets Lee Beavington, Pa Vue, and Chloe Dragon Smith invite us into the link between bio and cultural diversity. Through their poetry, it becomes something you feel rather than learn.

Read about these poems in our recent blog post: https://terralingua.org/2026/10/07/3-poets-explore-the-inextricable-link-of-bio-and-cultural-diversity/

10/07/2026

"In ancestral times, when birds were human beings."

In Yahgan oral tradition, stories begin with transformation rather than classification. Mary Sellars arrived at Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve in southern Chile as a Western scientist studying avian malaria.

In "When Birds Were Human Beings," she traces Charles Darwin's rare act of Western scientific humility, and what Western science still has to learn from Yahgan ways of knowing.

Read the full story: https://terralingua.org/stories/when-birds-were-human-beings/

10/05/2026

Read about the coexistence of tigers and villagers in Sundarban in “A Painting of a Tiger.” https://terralingua.org/stories/a-painting-of-a-tiger/

10/05/2026

In Kenya's Samburu community, women once excluded from conservation decisions are now leading lion protection efforts through Mama Simba, a program within Ewaso Lions. Combining Indigenous knowledge with community-led action, members have reduced livestock losses and prevented retaliatory killings while restoring degraded habitats. Their work proves that when women are invited to lead, conservation becomes a force for cultural revival and lasting coexistence.

This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and s...

10/01/2026

In the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove ecosystem shared between India and Bangladesh, tigers have long been revered as demigods who protect the forest. They have also claimed the lives of people whose livelihoods bring them into tiger territory.

In "A Painting of a Tiger," Madhumay Mallik writes about how communities on the fringes of this UNESCO World Heritage Site have learned to live alongside the tigers they revere and fear.

Read the full story: https://terralingua.org/stories/a-painting-of-a-tiger/

10/01/2026

For our 30th anniversary, we're excited to share a series of curated Langscape collections. Each collection showcases a theme about biocultural diversity relevant to all humans, whether you're a student, an activist, a community leader, a scholar, or simply someone who cares about the inextricable link between nature, culture, and language. This is the last bundle in the series.

This week's collection is The Future of Biocultural Diversity. Its stories help us envision a world in which people value the biocultural diversity of life and work together to nourish it for generations to come. Whether the stories are about young Indigenous leaders revitalizing their biocultural heritage; the Indigenous principles of Reverence, Respect, and Reciprocity imbuing our relationships with all life; or about self-determination and protection of land-based identities, languages, cultures, and ways of life, this collection carries the seeds of a future where biocultural diversity is rooted and restored, and carried into a just world.

To celebrate 30 years, all collections are 30% off. https://terralingua.org/tlshop/langscape-magazine/print-future-of-biocultural-diversity/