The Impacts of Global and National Policy on the Management and Conservation of Sacred Groves of India

India is home to thousands of community-protected forests, called sacred groves. Sacred forests or groves are sites that have cultural or spiritual significance to the people who live around them. These areas may also be key reservoirs of biodiversity. In India, most sacred groves are managed by a community group, not by a government agency. They are often private or community land, not formal protected areas or parks. This poses an interesting challenge in terms of future management and possible policy relating to the sacred groves. On the international level, organizations such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and UNESCO have created guidelines for management of sacred sites. On the national level, India’s past Forest Acts and recent Forest Rights Act have relevance to the sacred groves. Local differences in land tenure also affect the groves. Ethnographic research conducted in 2009 and 2010 in the states of Meghalaya and Karnataka, India, evaluated the historic and current management and beliefs associated with sacred forests. Cultural change and pressure to use natural resources within the groves is leading to reduction of these forest areas. In the future, a creative combination of policy approaches to conserve groves that respects their spiritual values is recommended.     

Tibetan sacred sites conserve old growth trees and cover in the eastern Himalayas

Khawa Karpo, in the eastern Himalayas, is a mountain considered sacred throughout Tibet, and is internationally recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot. Numerous areas within this landscape are considered ‘sacred’ by the indigenous Tibetans of the region, who interact with these sites in ways potentially beneficial to conservation. Our previous remote sensing study indicated that sacred sites are found in habitats with greater species richness, diversity, and endemism than randomly selected non-sacred sites. This study examines the role of sanctity in biodiversity conservation within habitats in the Khawa Karpo region by pairing plots within the same habitats in sacred and non-sacred areas. Understory richness, diversity, cover, and number of useful species are measured; for trees, richness, diversity, cover, and density are measured. Results indicate that within habitats sanctity does not affect understory plant communities; however, within sacred areas trees are larger (p = 0.003) and forests have greater cover (p = 0.003) than non-sacred areas. Our results indicate that, whereas placement of sacred areas and preservation of vegetation cover affects useful plants, biodiversity and endemism, within habitats sacred sites preserve old growth trees and forest structure. In sum, Tibetan sacred sites are ecologically unique and important for conservation on varying scales of landscape, community, and species.     

Conserving the Sacred Medicine Mountains: A Vegetation Analysis of Tibetan Sacred Sites in Northwest Yunnan

Mount Kawa Karpo of the Menri ('Medicine Mountains' in Tibetan), in the eastern Himalayas, is one of the most sacred mountains to Tibetan Buddhists. Numerous sacred sites are found between 1900 and 4000 m, and at higher elevations the area as a whole is considered a sacred landscape. Religious beliefs may affect the ecology of these sacred areas, resulting in unique ecological characteristics of importance to conservation; recent studies have demonstrated that sacred areas can often play a major role in conservation. The goal of this study is to preliminarily analyze the vegetation of sacred areas in the Menri region using existing vegetation maps and a Geographical Information System (GIS) for remote assessment. Sacred sites are compared to random points in the landscape, in terms of: elevation, vegetation, and nearness to villages; species composition, diversity, and richness; and frequency of useful and endemic plant species. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) ordination reveals that sacred sites differ significantly in both useful species composition (p=0.034) and endemic species composition (p=0.045). Sacred sites are located at lower elevations, and closer to villages, than randomly selected, non-sacred sites (p< 0.0001), and have higher overall species richness (p=0.033) and diversity (p=0.042). In addition, the high-elevation (> 4000 m) areas of the mountain - a sacred landscape - are found to have significantly more endemics than low-elevation areas (p<0.0001). These findings represent an initial analysis of sacred sites and suggest that sacred sites in the Menri region may be ecologically and ethnobotanically unique.     

Consequences of wooded shrine rituals on vegetation conservation in West Africa: a case study from the Bwaba cultural area (West Burkina Faso)

Anthropological contributions that challenge several common perceptions on sacred sites are still poorly taken into account in conservation and ecological studies. This paper aims at filling this gap and providing a better framework for biological studies. Local concepts of natural sacred sites and their ritual administration were studied and the ritual practices relating to the vegetation of these sites were analyzed in the Bwaba cultural area in West Burkina Faso. Our research shows that these ritual practices are much more diverse and fluid than might have been supposed. Protection ‘by tradition’ is thus rather different from what we call conservation. While vegetation does matter, its presence on sacred sites is not essential. In addition, under certain circumstances, sacred sites may be transferred or reproduced elsewhere. Attention is drawn to the inadequacy of ‘sacred woods’ as a category, in an ecological as well as an anthropological sense. Even if wooded shrines may contribute to biodiversity conservation as a side-effect of their religious purpose, the idea that they fundamentally are ‘endogenous’ nature conservatories must be disproved.     

Healing Animals,Feeding Souls: Ethnobotanical Values at Sacred Sites in Central Italy

Healing Animals, Feeding Souls: Ethnobotanical Values at Sacred Sites in Central Italy. Ethnobotanical knowledge is a fundamental repository of the values and applications of different plants. This knowledge is often related to spiritual beliefs and religious sites, where plants have been nurtured and conserved for their use in rituals and traditional practices. While this link is well known for different areas of the global south, it has hardly been investigated in relatively more secular and modernized Western contexts. Here, we use first–hand vegetation surveys and published records to examine the occurrence of ethnobotanical values at 30 Catholic shrines in Central Italy, and compare them with an equal number of non–sacred control sites. We ask this: to what extent is there an association of useful plants with sacred places in Italy, as found in other cultural contexts? We show that a greater number of useful plants are found at sacred sites. While this is mainly a consequence of the higher species richness of sacred sites, an association with plants used in animal husbandry is particularly evident, and likely related to the deep historical connection between sacred places and pastoralist traditions in Central Italy. Also, we show that there are significant variations in the distribution of old trees; the largest specimens are found at the center of sacred sites, while tree size visibly decreases away from the shrines. This indicates also that individual trees have been actively managed and conserved at sacred sites, probably driven by the symbolic values that old trees frequently embody.     

云南楚雄彝族的“神树林”与生物多样性保护

所述的“神树林”是广泛意义上的概念,包括多种因文化信仰而保护的各种森林块.这些森林块不仅有多种的生态功能,也是村社水平生物多样性相对集中的地方.通过对云南楚雄彝族的“神树林”进行了广泛调查,取样比较了自然保护区、村社集体林和“神树林”3种不同管理模式下的森林群落的植物物种多样性,结果表明“神树林”群落的物种总数(67)、样方特有种(17)、Shannon-Wiener物种多样性指数(2.96)都显著高于自然保护区群落(分别为44、8、2.17)和集体林群落(分别为34、4、2.39),表明云南楚雄彝族的“神树林”在当地生物多样性保护和管理中有着不可低估的作用.     

云南楚雄彝族的"神树林"与生物多样性保护

所述的“神树林”是广泛意义上的的概念,包括多种因文化信仰面保护的各种森林块,这些森林块不仅有多种的生态功能,也是村社水平生物多样性相对集中的地方,通过对云南楚雄彝族的“神树林”进行了广泛调查,取样比较了自然保护区,村社集体林和“神树林”３种不同管理模式下的森林群落的植物物种多样性,结果表明“神树林”群落的物种总数的植物物种多样性,结果表明“神树林”群落的物种总数（６７）、样方特有种（１７）、Ｓｈａ     

Sacred Forest, Hunting, and Conservation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

In a number of places, sacred forest sites play an important role in conservation and local livelihoods. Here we examine how Iban hunters and animals alike use sacred forest in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. To determine the relative importance of different sites in hunting, we compare hunting effort, animal species and their numbers encountered by hunters, and encounters and captures in a variety of forest sites including sacred groves. We relate the results to the role of such sites in the overall Iban agroforestry system and in the conservation of forest habitat that professional conservationists deem precious. Such land use practices, while having social and religious origins, may be important for local economic purposes, but they may also be valuable in promoting and enhancing the more global goals of biodiversity conservation.     

Materiality and Global Spiritual Networks: Old and new sacred places and objects

In this article, I am interested in how belief and religious materiality—sacred objects, places, infrastructures and digital media—are entangled in globalisation processes. Drawing on a case study of the John of God spiritual movement, I analyse the ways in which places and objects that have recently acquired sacred status enter into older, more established global spiritual networks, and by doing so are able to travel and ‘settle’ elsewhere. I argue that if we want to make sense of the place of religion in the world today, we need to link two fields of research on religion which have mostly developed separately: the fields of Material Religion and Globalisation of Religion. Furthermore, I contend that it is precisely because of its (mostly mobile) materiality that the John of God movement was able to survive somewhat after its charismatic leader was sentenced and jailed for sexual crimes in 2019.     

Primate Conservation: Unmet Challenges and the Role of the International Primatological Society

In the last 40 years, threats to the survival of wild primate populations have greatly increased. Primatologists have long been aware of these threats, and since 1978 have formulated plans to safeguard threatened species. Yet an increasing number of primate species face a high to extremely high risk of extinction. I asked 14 experienced field primatologists for their views on the most serious challenges to more effective primate conservation. They listed habitat loss and hunting as the major direct threats to primate survival, and noted that these activities are driven predominantly by the growth of human populations and the tendency of people to consume resources beyond their immediate survival needs. Two factors identified as most hindering effective action were a lack of political will and insufficient funding, while the main actions recommended to mitigate threats were to undertake more awareness-raising and make protected areas more effective. Such actions have long been recommended, so why have they not worked better? Perhaps the pressures on the natural world are too great to be countered, but I suggest also that too many of the various actors involved in conservation are overly driven by materialism and self-interest. I recommend more attention to the common good and a greater emphasis on the ethical and spiritual reasons for conservation. The International Primatological Society itself could have more vigorous debates on conservation policy at its congresses, and should consider the creation of regional chapters with the aim of promoting primatology in habitat countries.     

A preliminary assessment of landscape features and cultural practices of sacred fresh water swamps in the central Western Ghats,India

Sacred areas are the oldest form of habitat protection, and many of these areas contribute to biodiversity conservation. While sacred groves have received considerable scholarly attention, little is known about fresh water swamps in the Western Ghats, India and sacred swamps have largely been ignored. This paper provides a first overview testing the conjecture that sacred swamps have physical features that distinguish them from non-sacred swamps. We assessed 110 fresh water swamps in the district of Uttara Kannada, Central Western Ghats, India, through extensive field surveys. Out of them 11 swamps are ‘sacred’ according to local testimony. Swamps are found in wet evergreen and evergreen forest types, but sacred swamps occur only in the wet evergreen forests. Sacred swamps differ significantly from non-sacred swamps with respect to size and shape, distance to the nearest road, human settlement, and commercial orchard, and population density within a radius of 500 m. This shows that preferentially swamps close to settlements, orchards and roads have been declared as sacred, probably to regulate the continuing provision of relevant ecosystem services. While we find a variety of deities associated with these sacred swamps, the practices associated with sacred swamp status and management are essentially the same across belief groups. However, the conservation practice is at risk due to migration dynamics.     

Shadow conservation and the persistence of sacred church forests in northern Ethiopia

Land‐use change threatens biodiversity and ecosystem function worldwide. These changes have impacts on weather patterns, carbon storage, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services from regional to local scales. Only 8 percent of tropical forests are formally recognized as conservation areas, however globally, there is a network of sites that are protected because they are sacred and as a result act as ‘shadow’ conservation for biodiversity. Unlike other types of protected sites (e.g., national parks), these sites are seats of religious ritual that anchor a community's cultural identity, while also conserving biological diversity and other ecosystem services. We studied the extent and status of sacred forests in northern Ethiopia, which are threatened because of their small size (~5 ha) and isolation, increasing their exposure to edge effects and human pressures. Using historical and modern imagery, we found that over the last 50 yr, sacred forests have increased in area, but decreased in crown closure. We also found that forest ecological status, via ground‐level investigation, had high mean human disturbance (e.g., trails, plantations, exotic planting; 37%); and that forests close to markets (e.g., cities) increased in area due to planting of Eucalyptus (exotic), indicating a potential threat to their persistence and value as shelters of the church.     

Linking the Conservation of Culture and Nature: A Case Study of Sacred Forests in Zimbabwe

This paper examines the role of traditional religious beliefs and traditional leaders in conserving remnant patches of a unique type of dry forest in the Zambezi Valley of northern Zimbabwe. We examined aerial photographs spanning more than three decades, interviewed and surveyed local residents, and met with communities to learn about the environmental history of the forests and the factors that have affected land use in the area. Our results show that forest loss is dramatically less in forests that are now considered sacred, or were in the past connected to sacred forests. This supports our hypothesis that traditional spiritual values have influenced human behavior affecting the forests, and have played a role in protecting them until now. We also found that rates of forest loss have been much higher in an area where traditional leaders are relatively disempowered within the post-independence political system compared to an area where traditional leaders have more power. These findings lead us to conclude that a strategy that links the conservation of culture and nature is likely to be more effective in conserving forests than a strategy that ignores traditional beliefs, values, and institutions.     

Conservation, Small Mammals, and the Future of Sacred Groves in West Africa

This article considers the conservation of relict natural habitat in West Africa, especially habitat preserved in traditional sacred groves. Government-sanctioned conservation is contrasted with local grassroots efforts of conservation. Evidence for the ecological value of sacred groves is based on results of a field study of small mammal communities conducted on the Accra Plains of Ghana and on published sources on the conservation and use of sacred groves from various countries. The study employed standard mark-and-recapture techniques for the sampling for terrestrial small mammals, and mist netting for the sampling of bat communities. Pragmatic approaches combining conservation and sustainable use are considered, as are traditional values that have preserved the sacred groves in the past for up to several hundred years in some cases. In part because these groves shelter unique small mammal and plant communities, traditional values and protection mechanisms should be integrated into the newly emerging cultural and religious contexts. The issues encountered during this study reveal that effective conservation involving local peoples requires a concerted interdisciplinary effort. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Conserving freshwater biodiversity: The value,status and management of high quality ditch systems

Freshwater biodiversity is globally threatened and while most conservation efforts are focussed on natural and larger freshwater systems such as rivers and lakes, in many lowland agricultural landscapes artificial water bodies including ditches may be equally important as habitats for freshwater species. Ditches occur across the agricultural landscape but in particular, those associated with coastal and floodplain grazing marsh, have high conservation value. The importance of this habitat for rare and threatened species afforded priority status under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan is explored. The characteristics of ditches that have high conservation value are described and a set of targets against which such ditches can be assessed are presented. An analysis of the current condition of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for the wider coastal and floodplain grazing marsh habitat demonstrates the range of pressures affecting these sites and highlights that alongside generic freshwater issues such as eutrophication and non-native species, these sites have a unique set of pressures associated with their ongoing management and the vulnerable location of many sites at the coast. Wider conservation strategies for freshwater biodiversity in lowland landscapes across Europe need to factor in the different management requirements of artificial habitats such as ditches alongside more ambitious restoration projects for natural waterbodies. In low lying coastal areas the threat of coastal squeeze for many important grazing marshes will require a strategic approach to allow upstream migration of important biodiversity.     

Landscape scale species distribution modeling across the Guiana Shield to inform conservation decision making in Guyana

Species distribution modeling using museum and herbarium collections has been greatly facilitated by analytical algorithms such as MaxEnt. The ability to use herbarium and museum collections to inform conservation decision-making can greatly enhance conservation efforts in biodiversity rich countries when human capacity and in-country data are limited. Guyana is used as a case study for landscape scale biodiversity assessment under such constraints. I compiled specimen records for seven taxon-groups (invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, ferns and non-seed plants, and seed plants), across the Guiana Shield, South America, to assess landscape scale biodiversity richness. Collector and taxonomic bias were addressed a priori in MaxEnt by generating a bias surface layer to down-weight areas of high collection intensity by smoothing the sampling distribution. I summed modeled output for each taxon-group to generate taxon-group specific floral, faunal, and all-taxa biodiversity density surfaces. These surfaces were used to (1) identify areas of relative high biodiversity density; (2) assess possible conservation areas; and (3) compare modeled areas of conservation interest with those proposed by the Government of Guyana. In addition, I compared proposed conservation sites with the location of indigenous (Amerindian) and non-indigenous settlements, and lands used for natural resource extraction. I present three conservation scenarios based on the all-taxa biodiversity surface: (i) biodiversity-only, (ii) biodiversity and available lands; and (iii) collaboration with indigenous peoples. The conservation assessment used here provides an objective basis for selecting conservation sites. Model output can also be used to focus biodiversity assessments on poorly modeled and sampled locations.     

滇西北藏区自然圣境与传统文化驱动下的生物多样性保护

本研究旨在将滇西北藏区传统生态文化应用于社区生物多样性保护之中, 以推动社区参与式生物多样性保护和森林生态系统的修复。应用民族植物学和民族生态学的方法, 调查了位于白马雪山国家级自然保护区及周边地区的3个藏族村寨(巴珠、柯功、追达)的自然圣境与生物多样性分布状况及其生态服务功能等, 应用SWOT分析法和社区参与式保护途径, 开展了生物多样性保护示范活动。本研究结果表明, 社区保护生物多样性的主要驱动力来源于民族传统文化, 社区生计依赖于生物多样性, 保护自然圣境是社区水平保护生物与文化多样性及社区发展的重要途径。藏族自然圣境是基于传统信仰文化并经过长期实践建立和发展起来的有利于生物多样性保护的社区保护形式, 藏民社区长期遵从和实践自然圣境对生物多样性保护做出了重要贡献。     

Distribution and abundance of sacred monkeys in Igboland,southern Nigeria

Although primates are hunted on a global scale, some species are protected against harassment and killing by taboos or religious doctrines. Sites where the killing of sacred monkeys or the destruction of sacred groves is forbidden may be integral to the conservation of certain species. In 2004, as part of a distribution survey of Sclater's guenon (Cercopithecus sclateri) in southern Nigeria, we investigated reports of sacred monkeys in the Igbo‐speaking region of Nigeria. We confirmed nine new sites where primates are protected as sacred: four with tantalus monkeys (Chlorocebus tantalus) and five with mona monkeys (Cercopithecus mona). During 2004–2006, we visited two communities (Akpugoeze and Lagwa) previously known to harbor sacred populations of Ce. sclateri to estimate population abundance and trends. We directly counted all groups and compared our estimates with previous counts when available. We also estimated the size of sacred groves and compared these with grove sizes reported in the literature. The mean size of the sacred groves in Akpugoeze (2.06 ha, n=10) was similar to others in Africa south of the Sahel, but larger than the average grove in Lagwa (0.49 ha, n=15). We estimated a total population of 124 Sclater's monkeys in 15 groups in Lagwa and 193 monkeys in 20 groups in Akpugoeze. The Akpugoeze population was relatively stable over two decades, although the proportion of infants declined, and the number of groups increased. As Sclater's monkey does not occur in any official protected areas, sacred populations are important to the species' long‐term conservation. Despite the monkeys' destruction of human crops, most local people still adhere to the custom of not killing monkeys. These sites represent ideal locations in which to study the ecology of Sclater's monkey and human–wildlife interactions. Am. J. Primatol. 71:574–586, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Surface-active arthropods in organic vineyards,integrated vineyards and natural habitat in the Cape Floristic Region

The Cape Floristic Region (CFR), South Africa, is a biodiversity hotspot challenged by intensive wine production. Innovative approaches are being explored to optimize wine production without compromising biodiversity. As organic farming enhances biodiversity conservation in many other regions, the aim here was to assess the potential of organic vineyard management for conserving CFR soil surface arthropod diversity. Pitfall traps were used to sample arthropods in three study areas, each of which included an organic vineyard, an integrated vineyard and a natural vegetation reference habitat. Overall arthropod morphospecies richness was highest in natural sites, followed by organic vineyards and then integrated vineyards. The same trend was seen for predators, saprophages and phytophages. The ability of organic vineyards to sustain more morphospecies than integrated vineyards were partially due to higher non-crop vegetation complexity and less intense management in the organic vineyards. Arthropod assemblages were similar in organic and integrated vineyards, while both land-uses differed greatly from natural sites. Variation among natural vegetation assemblages in different study areas was also much greater than among assemblages of cultivated sites. Organic vineyard management has the potential to make an important contribution to arthropod conservation in the CFR at the field scale. However, at the landscape scale, natural habitat supports a much wider variety of morphospecies, and the preservation of natural fragments in the vineyard landscape may be the most effective measure to increase biodiversity in the winelands.     

Richness, Abundance, and Complementarity of Fruit-feeding Butterfly Species in Relict Sacred Forests and Forest Reserves of Ghana

Sacred forest groves in Ghana are centuries old protected areas that were once part of continuous forest cover but now mostly exist as relict forest patches embedded in an agropastoral landscape. We conducted a year-long survey of the fruit-feeding butterfly fauna of four sacred groves and two forest reserves in the moist semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana to characterize resident species diversity and complementarity among communities. Joint analysis of frugivorous butterfly diversity at these six forest fragments, which ranged in size from 6 to 5000 ha, was used to evaluate the conservation potential of these ancient indigenous reserves. A total of 6836 individuals were trapped across all sites, representing 79 species and five subfamilies. Community diversity was characterized in terms of, (a) number of species accumulated versus sampling effort, (b) rarefied species richness, (c) nonparametric richness estimates, (d) species evenness, (e) Simpson’s Index of Diversity, and (f) complementarity of communities. Diversity of the fruit-feeding butterfly communities, quantified in terms of both species evenness and rarefied species richness, was higher at the larger forest reserves than at the small sacred forest groves. Additionally, although all sites had species trapped only at that site, the 5000-ha forest reserve harbored a resident community that was clearly distinctive from and more diverse than the other communities including the other forest reserve. Hence, our findings add to the burgeoning body of data that indicates large reserves are the foundation of successful conservation programs. Nonetheless, we found these small forest patches contribute to biodiversity conservation in at least three ways and these are identified and discussed. We also identify a number of species that appear more or less vulnerable to dynamics of forest fragmentation based on changes in their relative abundance across sites and we interpret these data in the context of potential indicator species and theoretical predictions of at-risk species.