The Diversity of Sacred Lands in Europe - IUCN

equally effective tool as interpretation
and communication activities,
while involving locals in conservation
activities.
9. SNSs and other sites with special
spiritual and cultural value should
be incorporated into the national
legislation. When necessary, public
access, construction and other human
activities should be limited,
both inside and around SNSs, to
ensure the values of the sites. Spiritual
values should also be legally
recognised as arguments for establishing
protected areas.
10. The message of religious traditions
and wisdom that foster a deep,
meaningful, and lasting bond with
nature and carry out respectful
practices on nature conservation
and sustainable environmental
management should be more widely
disseminated.
11. Transboundary, regional and subregional
co-operation, such as the
Barents Euro-Arctic region and the
Carpathian region, are very important
and should be encouraged
when promoting synergies between
the conservation of natural heritage
and spiritual heritage.
12. The significance of the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP) was
stressed, as well as the Principle of
Free, Prior and Informed Consent
and Indigenous Peoples (FPIC).
13. The concepts of animal spirits, totemic
species and other cultural
significant species (symbolic, identity,
etc) should be incorporated in
the study, planning and management
of SNSs.
14. Special attention needs to be paid
to and significant support is to be
offered equally to those sacred natural
sites of indigenous people that
have already been recognised as
well as to those that are not yet
known as sacred natural sites.
15. In various countries of Europe, natural
sites considered sacred since
prehistoric times and which are often
located in areas of high natural
heritage value have been recognised
and inventoried. Several case
studies from the Baltic countries
showed that these sites still have
significance for current societies
(identity, iconic, symbolic, etc.). In
Estonia, where the heritage connected
to sacred natural sites is
significantly rich, a state level conservation
plan (Estonian National
Conservation Plan for Sacred Natural
Sites) has been prepared and
adopted to instruct conducting the
inventories and saving the sacred
natural sites. In order to ensure efficient
conservation of sacred natural
sites appropriate legal status and
management measures are
needed.
16. The Delos Initiative could explore
whether other international instruments
(such as the Habitat Contact
Forum, the Barents Region Protected
Areas Network and the Carpathian
Network of Protected Are-
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