One of the driving forces for the establishment of FACES was the concern that many people groups have never been either investigated or documented.
Of equal concern is the fact many of those peoples may be assimilated into larger people groups and possibly vanish in as little as a generation which would include the irrevocable disappearance of their languages and habits. To the founders, preservation of information regarding these people groups is as valuable as efforts to preserve historical places, buildings, documents or works of art. The founders believe this information must be safe-guarded for future generations just as the world now, for example, actively promotes world heritage sites. Furthermore, the accelerating pace of globalization, and a perceived lack of initiatives to preserve this information, not only for the most endangered groups but for all peoples, prompted the founders to aim for the most complete documentation of these traditions, languages and cultures for future generations.
