1.Front section - IUCN

Building cultural support for protected areas through sacred natural sites 10
Typology of non-material values
One of the first activities of the Task Force was to
develop the following typology of non-material values
related to PAs (Harmon and Putney, 2003):
1. Recreational values: Those intrinsic qualities of
natural areas that interact with humans to
restore, refresh, or create anew through
stimulation and exercise of the mind, body and
soul (i.e., re-creation).
2. Spiritual values: Those qualities of protected
areas that inspire humans to relate with
reverence to the sacredness of nature.
3. Cultural values: Those qualities, both positive
and negative, ascribed to natural, cultural or
mixed sites by different social groups, traditions,
beliefs, or value systems that fulfil humankind’s
need to understand, and connect in meaningful
ways, to the environment of its origin and the
rest of nature.
4. Identity values: Those natural sites that link
people to their landscape through myth, legend
or history.
5. Existence values: The satisfaction, symbolic
importance, and even willingness to pay, derived
from knowing that outstanding natural and
cultural landscapes have been protected and
exist as physical and conceptual spaces where all
forms of life and culture are valued and held
sacred.
6. Artistic values: The qualities of nature that
inspire human imagination in creative
expression.
7. Aesthetic values: Appreciation of the harmony,
beauty, and profound meaning found in nature.
8. Educational values: The qualities of nature that
enlighten the careful observer with respect to the
relationships of humans with the natural
environment, and, by extension, the relationships
between humans, thereby creating respect and
understanding.
9. Research and monitoring values: The function of
natural areas as refuges, benchmarks and
baselines that provide scientists and interested
individuals with relatively natural monitoring
sites less influenced by human-induced change
or conversion.
10.Peace values: The function of protected areas in
fostering regional peace and stability through
cooperative management across international
land or sea boundaries (Transfrontier
Conservation Areas); as ‘intercultural spaces’for
the development of understanding between
traditional and modern societies, or between
distinct cultures or age groups; or as refuges for
nurturing internal peace and harmony for the
individual.
11.Therapeutic values: The relationship between
people and natural environments in protected
areas that creates the potential for healing, and
for enhancing physical and psychological well
being.
Sacred natural sites
Early on, the Task Force chose to give particular
attention to sacred natural sites (SNS) because of their
cultural and spiritual importance to many societies,
and their value for biodiversity conservation. Sacred
natural sites are defined as “areas where nature, the
divine and remembrances come together in special
combinations that are particularly meaningful to a
community, society or people. They can be the abode
of deities, natural spirits and ancestors. They can be
feared and secret places, and they can be benign areas
for contemplation and meditation allowing also
communication with the transcendental. Common to
most sacred natural sites is that they are areas removed
from everyday access and resource use” (Putney and
Schaaf, 2003).
The SNS of indigenous and traditional peoples
around the world frequently serve as communitybased
conservation areas that fulfil functions similar
to the PAs of western societies. They are also integral
parts of ethnic identity and play a key role in
indigenous and traditional peoples’ culture and
lifestyles. Because of the spiritual values ascribed to
them, these sites (groves, mountains, forests, islands,
desert oases, lakes, rivers, caves, etc., as well as entire
landscapes) many times contain relatively unaltered
ecosystems where human-induced impacts are
minimal. They have been spared environmental
degradation because their protection is embedded in
local cultures and traditional belief systems. As a
result, they frequently contain rare and endangered
species, and serve as gene pools for species that can
be reintroduced into surrounding degraded
landscapes. However, in recent years the community
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