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Introduction: Sacred Natural Sites the Foundations of Conservation
Bas Verschuuren, Robert Wild, Jeffrey McNeely and Gonzalo Oviedo
Uluru (Ayers Rock), Mato Tipila (Devil's Tower), Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Kailash, Sagarmatha/Chomolongma (Mt Everest), Lake Titicaca, Lake Baikal, the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers are but a few of the sacred natural sites that include some of the most iconic places on the planet. Among such sacred natural sites are thousands more that remain little known and unsung, such as the Dai Holy Hills, the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, the Golden Mountains of Altai, the sacred groves of the Western Ghats, the sacred lakes of the Niger delta and the numerous sacred islands, groves, and springs found throughout the world. The list is very long, uncounted and in a sense uncountable.
In these places nature and humanity meet, and people's deeper motives and aspirations are expressed through what is called āthe sacredā. Many of these places are virtually ignored, some receive pilgrims by the million, and yet others are the closely guarded secrets of their custodians. People of faith or religion, or of no particular faith, find inspiration in these places, and they resonate across a wide spectrum of humanity.
With habitats and ecosystems degrading and the extinction of animal and plant species increasing, sacred natural sites have drawn attention from the conservation movement as reservoirs of biodiversity. It is being proposed that the effective conservation of sacred natural sites will help to protect diverse human cultures and a substantial portion of increasingly vulnerable nature. Sacred natural sites, therefore, concern the well-being of both nature and humans and encompass the complex intangible and spiritual relationships between people and our originating web of life. This book speaks, then, of places that matter at the depths of human emotions.
Sacred natural sites: An overview
For the purpose of this book, sacred natural sites are āareas of land or water having special spiritual significance to peoples and communitiesā (Oviedo and Jeanrenaud, 2007). This working definition is deliberately broad and open and recognizes the limitations of each of the words āsacredā, ānaturalā and āsiteā. Other terms are used in this book in recognition of this openness and it is important that the concept remains open to further articulation.
Each term āsacredā, ānaturalā and āsiteā has its limitations. āSacredā has different meanings to different communities. At the basic level it denotes deep respect and āset asideā for purposes of the spiritual or religious. The original term had an aspect of āfearā that is now less current. The word ānaturalā is used in this context to contrast areas with little or no nature (e.g. mosques, churches or temples), this being the common understanding of sacred site in much of the developed world. Thus natural denotes that a site contains ānatureā of some kind that is often valuable. What exactly ānaturalā means or should mean has long been debated within the conservation world. In the context of sacred natural sites, it does not mean an absence of human connection, influence or interaction. In the context of sacred natural sites, the term āsiteā is a broad concept which includes areas and places of all kinds and encompasses complete territories, extensive landscapes and can also be as small as a single rock or tree. The term sacred natural sites therefore needs to remain an open concept with an evolving articulation.
Sacred natural sites are part of a broader set of cultural values that different social groups, traditions, beliefs or value systems attach to places and which āfulfil humankind's need to understand, and connect in meaningful ways, to the environment of its origin and to natureā (Putney, 2005, p132).
Sacred natural sites consist of all types of natural features including mountains, hills, forests, groves, rivers, lakes, lagoons, caves, islands and springs. They can vary in size from the very small: an individual tree, small spring or a single rock formation, to whole landscapes and mountain ranges. They consist of geological formations, distinct landforms, specific ecosystems and natural habitats. They are predominantly terrestrial but are also found in inshore marine areas, islands and archipelagos. They may also be the location of temples, shrines, mosques and churches, and they can incorporate other features such as pilgrimage trails. In some sites nature is itself sacred, while in others sanctity is conferred by connections with spiritual heroes, religious structures or sacred histories.
The interest in sacred natural sites from the perspective of nature conservation lies in the components of biological diversity that they harbour, such as the species of animals and plants, the habitats and ecosystems, as well the ecological dynamics and functions that support life within and outside the places. Linked to such biological diversity is the array of distinct human cultures that care for them and hold them sacred. Many sacred sites are primarily built places, such as temples, and while being supportive of their conservation, such archaeological or architectural elements are not specifically addressed in this book.
Sacred natural sites and religion
The term āsacred natural sitesā implies that these areas are in some way holy, venerated or consecrated and so connected with religion or belief systems, or set aside for a spiritual purpose. The word āspiritualā, which relates to the human spirit, as opposed to material or physical things, does not imply a religious institution and many people who experience spiritual emotions about nature (including secular scientists) do not belong to a formal religion. But sacred sites associated with living cultures always have institutions and rules associated with them. These institutions are usually religious or spiritual in nature and may be distinct from other parts of society, while in some communities of indigenous and traditional peoples, sacred site institutions are closely integrated within society with little distinction between the sacred and the secular, the religious and the civil.
The vast majority of sacred natural sites were arguably founded by indigenous or folk religions and spiritualities, but many were subsequently adopted or co-opted by mainstream religions. There is consequently a considerable ālayeringā and mixing of religious and other spiritual or belief systems. Within the larger mainstream religions there are many if not more autonomous or semiautonomous sub-groups. While 50 per cent of the world's population profess to belong to either Christianity or Islam (see Figure 1.1), and many others are Hindus or Buddhists, 80 per cent of all people ascribe to a mainstream religion, a large part of which continue to adhere to at least some traditional or folk religion (O'Brien and Palmer, 1997). Sacred natural sites are thus connected to a wide range of socio-cultural systems and institutions, some more complex than others, and to different dynamics of change and cultural interaction.
Sacred natural sites are just one of many domains where religions or belief systems interact with nature. Most if not all religions have mythology, cosmology, theology or ethics related to earth, nature and land. Contemporarily, such connections are being revived or rearticulated through ethical positions expressed for example in statements that many of the mainstream faiths have produced, setting out their relationship to the natural world and their responsibility towards the planet (Oā Brien and Palmer, 1997).
Figure 1.1 Karamat of Shaykh Hohamed Hassen Ghaibie Shah al-Qadiri at Lion's Head, Signal Hill within Table Mountain National Park (Cape Town is ringed by a Holy Circle of Islamic Shrines)
Source: Robert Wild
Establishing a duality between āindigenousā, in the sense of being native or belonging to a place, and āmainstreamā, while pragmatic for discussion, does present some problems. Several mainstream faiths can be considered indigenous in much of their range, e.g. Daoism, Shinto, Hinduism and Jainism, while Zoroastrianism now has very few followers and is essentially no longer āmainstreamā. More problematic is that this duality renders invisible the many merged or syncretic faiths and folk variants of mainstream religions where elements of the preceding indigenous beliefs are still practiced. These folk religions can have much stronger nature ethics than the more symbolic orthodox form (see Figure 1.2 and Byrne, Chapter 5; Studley, Chapter 10). Within human history, religion has been used (or abused) as a tool of domination. These issues, although much reduced, have not gone away and some faiths still seek converts from other faiths. The destruction of sacred sites has been part of that domination and still continues today.
Conversely, most faiths over long periods of time have peaceably co-existed and shared sacred sites. Mutual respect and accommodation have often been reached. Further, compassion and peace-building lie at the heart of many religious traditions and belief systems.
There are important elements to take into account regarding indigenous or traditional spirituality. The growing recognition of the political status of indigenous peoples provided in 2007 by the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP, 2007) has significantly increased awareness of the deeper dimensions of oppression and also of resilience. Centuries of religious colonialism in various degrees extirpated traditional spiritual beliefs and practices. The many different situations and histories gave rise to a large diversity of spiritualities amongst indigenous peoples which is largely made up of a body of beliefs, values and practices intimately connected to nature.
Figure 1.2 The goddess Jomo Miyo Lang Samba from Pangbuche Monastery who lives on Mount Everest
She provides ānorbuā (wealth) for the Sherpa people. In the past, norbu included food and other necessities and now also encompasses tourism. Mountain climbers and their family members worship the mountain deities to produce safe passage on ascents and descents.
Source: Jeremy Spoon
Some scholars would associate sacred sites of indigenous peoples with animism, understood in anthropology as the belief in the existence of āspiritual beingsā embodied in natural elements ā plants, animals, or inanimate constituents of nature, as classically described by Taylor in 1871, or more contemporarily as āa relational ontology in which the world is found to be, and treated as, a community of persons not all of whom are humanā (Bird, 2002). In āanimistā spirituality there is an intrinsic sacramental dimension in natural sites themselves.
For most mainstream religions, primarily in monotheist traditions, a fundamental feature of belief is the purely non-material nature of divinity; de-sacralization of natu...
