The Diversity of Sacred Lands in Europe - IUCN

Diversity of sacred lands and meanings
in Northern Europe: Challenges for the
managers of protected areas
Rauno Väisänen
Introduction
In this paper based on the opening
statement of the third workshop of the
Delos Initiative, the sacred natural
sites are considered from the protected
area practitioner’s point of view.
Why should the protected areas, national
parks and protected area agencies
be interested in the sacred dimension
of the protected areas? How can
the spiritual values be taken into account
in the design, management and
monitoring of the protected areas? The
aim is to show that, although the conservation
of the integrity of sacred natural
sites may be challenging, it provides
parks professionals with a lot of
opportunities and may bring in new
and rewarding insights into the interpretation
and communication of the diverse
values of the parks.
Most of the examples and experiences
presented in this paper come from
Northern Europe and, especially, from
Finland, a sparsely populated forested
country with a small indigenous Sámi
minority in the north. In Finland, most
protected areas lie on the state-owned
lands and are managed by a single
agency, i.e. Metsähallitus Natural Heritage
Services. The management is
based on standardised and regularly
updated principles of the management
of protected areas, as well as on legis-
< Koli National Park is of great historical significance as a sacred site and has contemporary
significance as a national landscape, both contributing to the Finnish identity
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