This is the featured Article of the Sacred Sites Research Newsletter Newsletter March 2019 Issue. by Jonathan Liljeblad The Rise of Indigenous Rights Commencing in the latter part of the 20th century and continuing into the 21 st , a global effort gathered momentum through different avenues to recognize and address the concept of Indigenous rights. […]
The recognition that “other-than-human” entities have legal personality can be seen as an emerging eco-spiritual paradigm around the world.
Since sacred natural sites hi the conservation agenda in the late 90-‘s they have been receiving increasing attention from conservationists. In 2008 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona the launch of the IUCN UNESCO Best Practice Guidelines “Sacred Natural Sites: Guidelines for Protected Area Managers” marked a sea change in terms of their […]
An international photography contest, dedicated to historical sacred natural sites, is commencing. The goal of the contest is to commemorate the cultural and natural heritages of sacred natural sites, to record their current state, as well as to encourage people to visit and care for the sacred sites. The theme of the contest is historical, […]
Sacred groves are important for biodiversity conservation but this is not the only important function of the Groves in Ghana’s Upper West region. The groves provide medicinal plants and also house the communities’ ancestral spirits which are essential to the communities’ spiritual well-being. The groves protect the spirits who subsequently protect and guide the people […]
This is a call for contributions to a forthcoming book entitled: “Indigenous Perspectives on Living with Sacred Heritage (2016)”. This book will look to the notion of a sacred site as defined by its indigenous custodians. As such, sacred sites can be natural or human-made, can be situated in any geographic location, can be closed […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
