Spiritual Ecology, Sacred Places, and Biodiversity Conservation

Many cultures adapted successfully for centuries or millennia. Others degraded their habitat and depleted natural resources to the extent of undermining their economic and social viability. Among those that have proven to be sustainable, spiritual ecology and sacred places in nature, as one of its manifestations, may be important in facilitating biodiversity conservation in many cases. Accumulating research from different scientific disciplines is progressively exploring and documenting the possibilities of connections between sacred places and biodiversity conservation around the world. In such efforts, environmental anthropology has a strategic role to play in basic research, applied work, and advocacy. Previously, these three subjects of spiritual ecology, sacred places, and biodiversity conservation were treated separately and usually still are. The special focus of this chapter is on their mutual relevance. It explores each of these three in turn and then demonstrates their interrelationships with the particular case of sacred groves.