The Diversity of Sacred Lands in Europe - IUCN

have preceded the establishment of
protected areas, often by several centuries,
sometimes by thousands of
years, and many of them have traditional
custodians or guardians. Some
are known by small communities, and
have restrictions for access to outsiders,
whilst others receive large numbers
of pilgrims or visitors, numbering
several million per year.
The Delos Initiative has previously held
two workshops, the first one at the holy
mountain of Montserrat, Catalonia,
Spain in 2006, and the second at
Ouranoupolis, next to the monastic republic
of Mount Athos, Greece, in
2007. The work carried out during the
first years was compiled in the proceedings
of both workshops (Mallarach
and Papayannis, 2007; Papayannis
and Mallarach eds, 2010) and
encapsulated in the Montserrat (2006)
and Ouranoupolis Statements (2007).
Thus, the purpose of organising the
third Delos workshop in Inari in Finnish
Lapland, in the Sámi homeland, was to
bring in the Northern European dimension
and, especially, and to familiarise
with the culture of the indigenous Sámi
people.
The conclusions of the work that has
been done are being further evaluated
and refined, so that guidance can be
provided, initially to the managers of protected
natural areas that include sacred
sites, but which can also be of use to the
custodians of these sites, and other concerned
stakeholders. Specific Guidelines
for sacred natural sites related to
mainstream religions is a need recognised
in the IUCN-UNESCO Guidelines
for Protected Area Managers on Sacred
Natural Sites (Wild and McLeod, 2008),
given that the existing guidelines focus
on the sacred natural sites of indigenous
and local communities.
Until the present day, most of the work
of the Delos Initiative has been developed
in Europe, either at bioregional or
national levels, together with organisations
such as the IUCN Landscape
Task Force, the EUROPARC Federation,
Eurosite, the Convention of the Carpathian
Protected Areas, Mediterranean
Ramsar sites, and the Protected
Area Unit of the Romanian National Forest
Administration (Romsilva). For instance,
the Spanish Section of Europarc
agreed to integrate the cultural
and spiritual values in the planning and
management of protected areas in the
Programme of Work for. Protected
Areas of Spain 2009-13 (EUROPARC
España, 2009), and currently specific
guidance is being develop at the national
level. Another example was the
first Conference of the Carpathian Convention
on Protected Areas in Romania
in 2008, which approved the identification
and characterisation of the Carpathian
cultural identity in the protected
areas, including spiritual, cultural and
natural values, in the Programme of
Work, and established a working group
for the tangible and intangible cultural
heritage of protected areas.
The Inari workshop
The third workshop of the Delos Initiative
was held in Inari, Lapland, Finland,
from 30 June to 4 July 2010. The theme
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