A language is much more than a means of communication; it is the vector of a way of thinking, a culture, the depository of a people’s history, its mythology, its cosmogony, its music…It is not only words are lost when a language disappears, but an entire perception of the world.

Moreover, the thousands of languages that exist today across the globe contain considerable information for the rest of humanity. For example, certain researchers estimate that over 80% of the Earth’s plants are unknown to Westerners, whereas the speakers of threatened languages know and use these plants, especially in traditional medicine.

Who knows that curare – now commonly used for anaesthesia – was discovered by Europeans only in the XVIth century, when the Spanish conquest of South America brought together settlers and Native hunters, who had been using these plant extracts since the dawn of time.

Who knows that quinine comes from cinchona powder, used by the Incas to sooth Malaria and only brought back from Peru by the Jesuits in the XVIIIth century?

Who knows that no less than a quarter of the drugs that are prescribed at the present time in the United States are derived from plants that come from tropical forests ?

This is not about folklore or things picturesque. From Brussels to Lambaréné, from Beijing to Antigua, this knowledge is part of humanity’s greatest riches. Languages are useful to the global community and it is crucial (had put “important”) that we take action before it’s too late.