Language, learning and life: Linked losses

Language, traditional ecological knowledge and biological diversity are linked. The conservation of biological diversity is dependent, in part, on the conservation of indigenous and local communities' languages and traditional knowledge, innovations and practices regarding biological diversity. The arrival of the First Fleet in Australia in 1788 and the founding of the colony at Sydney led to a loss of the indigenous Sydney language, and of traditional ecological knowledge of the native flora and fauna of the Sydney area. As a consequence, humanity's collective knowledge of biodiversity and its use and management has been impoverished, and the conservation of the biological diversity of the Sydney area impeded.