Abstract
Sacred Natural Sites (SNS) are parts of land or water that have spiritual significance for specific communities which are often hotspots of cultural, and biological diversity. Using various indigenous means, SNS provide cheap and effective protection of natural resources. It represent the world’s oldest protected areas. SNS have served as important reservoirs or storehouses of biological diversity, preserving unique and/or rare plants and animal species. They tend to harbour rich in species of biodiversity, and occasionally provide more effective conservation than formal protected areas. So SNS are considered showcases for the conservation of biological and cultural diversity in nature. These lead to their role in biodiversity conservation and provide ecosystem services, conservation d and sources of medicinal plant, water and climate regulation, support nutrient cycling and soil formation, and cultural services like spiritual, religious and sense of place. Beyond conservation, SNS as nodes of resilience, restoration and adaptation to climate change. Moreover they are a paradigmatic example of community-based conservation that relies upon local people’s understanding and involvement of natural resources. Despite the effectiveness of many community managed SNS, their values have until recently largely been ignored by conservation practitioners. Because of the increasing human activities pressure on natural resources including within them, it is a race against time to secure them before they disappear.
Highlights
The resultant loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services has been happening and continue at an alarming scale across the world [1,2,3]
Sacred Natural Sites (SNS) form a shadow conservation network at the applied level [9] that can integrate and complement existing protected areas (PAs) by conserving habitats and species not represented in official conservation schemes and improving connectivity in agricultural landscapes [24]
Among the biodiversity patterns recorded in sacred groves and other sacred landscapes, high densities of medicinal plants and other useful species are not uncommon, confirming that these places have been managed by local communities as repositories of vital resources and knowledge [8]
Summary
The resultant loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services has been happening and continue at an alarming scale across the world [1,2,3]. Emphasizing sacred natural sites as a primary conservation network will lead to a better analysis and understanding of their role in conserving biodiversity, and providing ecosystem services, such as provisioning (e.g. food and medicinal plants), regulating (e.g. water and climate), supporting (nutrient cycling and soil formation) and the more obvious cultural services (e.g. spiritual, religious and sense of place) [16]. This may allow the economic valuation of SNS based on holistic approaches to valuation that include broad measures of human well-being. V To recommend who the relevant people and initiatives might be, as a basis from which to build an alliance to strengthen the overall aim of enhancing the knowledge, practices, protection and general awareness of sacred sites and associated features
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