Language and ethnobiological skills decline precipitously in Papua New Guinea, the world's most linguistically diverse nation

Papua New Guinea is home to >10% of the world’s languages and rich and varied biocultural knowledge, but the future of this diversity remains unclear. We measured language skills of 6,190 students speaking 392 languages (5.5% of the global total) and modeled their future trends using individual-level variables characterizing family language use, socioeconomic conditions, students’ skills, and language traits. This approach showed that only 58% of the students, compared to 91% of their parents, were fluent in indigenous languages, while the trends in key drivers of language skills (language use at home, proportion of mixed-language families, urbanization, students’ traditional skills) predicted accelerating decline of fluency to an estimated 26% in the next generation of students. Ethnobiological knowledge declined in close parallel with language skills. Varied medicinal plant uses known to the students speaking indigenous languages are replaced by a few, mostly nonnative species for the students speaking English or Tok Pisin, the national lingua franca. Most (88%) students want to teach indigenous language to their children. While crucial for keeping languages alive, this intention faces powerful external pressures as key factors (education, cash economy, road networks, and urbanization) associated with language attrition are valued in contemporary society

Hunting skills and ethnobiological knowledge among the young, educated Papua New Guineans: Implications for conservation

Hunting, as a component of traditional indigenous livelihoods, can play either positive or negative role in biodiversity conservation by maintaining traditional lifestyles that are conducive to conservation or by endangering vulnerable hunted species. Quantitative data on changes in hunting skills in indigenous communities driven by education, employment, and other lifestyle changes are lacking. Here we assess hunting skills of young people in Papua New Guinea (PNG). We use a sample of 7818 secondary school students, representing 15% of the most educated individuals in their age cohort. Students self-assessed their hunting skills as none (34% of respondents), poor (46%), and good (20%). Male students reported significantly higher hunting skills than female students. Hunting skills were positively correlated with knowledge of local bird species and with other traditional skills (growing food, using medicinal plants, building houses). They were negatively correlated with math and English skills, as well as with the transportation accessibility of the village/town where the students grew up. Students who grow up in town reported significantly lower hunting skills than those who grew up in village. These results show that students' hunting skills are already low, and the trends in their socio-cultural drivers predict a further decline in the future. The increasing disconnection from the natural environment and the declining attractiveness of hunting as prestigious activity for the young and educated people are part of a broader trend of loss of ethnobiological knowledge in PNG's indigenous communities. While it may reduce hunting pressure on some endangered species, it may also remove traditional incentives for conservation in rainforest-dwelling communities

Language and ethnobiological skills decline precipitously in Papua New Guinea, the world's most linguistically diverse nation

Papua New Guinea is home to >10% of the world's languages and rich and varied biocultural knowledge, but the future of this diversity remains unclear. We measured language skills of 6,190 students speaking 392 languages (5.5% of the global total) and modeled their future trends using individual-level variables characterizing family language use, socioeconomic conditions, students' skills, and language traits. This approach showed that only 58% of the students, compared to 91% of their parents, were fluent in indigenous languages, while the trends in key drivers of language skills (language use at home, proportion of mixed-language families, urbanization, students' traditional skills) predicted accelerating decline of fluency to an estimated 26% in the next generation of students. Ethnobiological knowledge declined in close parallel with language skills. Varied medicinal plant uses known to the students speaking indigenous languages are replaced by a few, mostly nonnative species for the students speaking English or Tok Pisin, the national lingua franca. Most (88%) students want to teach indigenous language to their children. While crucial for keeping languages alive, this intention faces powerful external pressures as key factors (education, cash economy, road networks, and urbanization) associated with language attrition are valued in contemporary society