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The loss of cultural knowledge and the threat that brings to the sacred lands on Coron Island, Philipines

Entrance to kayangan Lake, sacred to the Calamian Tagbanwa
Coron Island is an archipelago full of coral reefs, brackish lagoons, mangroves, limestone forests and flourishing biodiversity.  There are ten lakes in the area considered sacred by the Calamian Tagbanwa, called Panyaan’s. The lakes are also officially recognised by the state as indigenous ancestral territories.  In the face of increasing development pressures such as mining […]

Conservation experience: Mapping Winti practices and sacred groves for protection of the forests of Suriname.

Sacred ceiba pentandra
During the era of the slave trade Winti religion travelled with the African people to Suriname where they established a new connection to the land and their ancestors. Today, their descendants still use many medicinal and spiritual herbs from the groves for their sacred rituals and healing ceremonies.   The Winti belief emphasizes protection of […]

Conservation experience: Invite the gods and goddesses for protection, Juju Island, South Korea

Gureombi2
Near the Gureombi village on the South-Korean island of Jeju, Shamans pray to the ocean for abundance and prosperity. They perform the Chogamje ceremony where they invite the 18.000 Gods and Goddesses from the ocean into the sacred place. Before the gods enter the site it must first be purified. For thousands of years these […]

A Call for Legal Recognition of Sacred Natural Sites in Africa

Call to action
“A Call for Legal Recognition of Sacred Natural Sites and Territories, and their Customary Governance Systems” was released by Gaia Foundation and African Biodiversity Network. The report provides the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights with persuasive and substantive arguments relating to a core element of original African traditions and calls for a decisive […]

Conservation experience: Monks on Mount Athos, Greece

2ThymioGregorius
Emperor Basil I of Byzantine bestowed the monks with the sole right of entrance to the Mount Athos peninsula in 885 A.D. They have built a flourishing religious community and maintained and protected the ecosystem ever since. Their management predominantly consists of controlling entrance and regulating timber practices. The peninsula is officially recognized as a […]

A canoe pilgrimage to the isle of Boreray, Scotland

Boreray canoe
For Lewis raised SNSI advisor Alastair McIntosh, inflating his canoe and taking it for a spin around the Hebrides Islands was not a story of heroic outdoor activity. Alistair, who’s been long involved with reading the soul of landscapes and interested in people’s deeper intertwinements with nature, headed out for a pilgrimage to the sacred […]