Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources through Spirituality

Abstract

Conservation of nature and natural resources has been a much challenging task in the present state of affairs where economy prevails over ecology. International treaties and conventions are signed and policies, laws and Acts have been enacted by the countries across the world, however, hostilities remain while applying the protected area policies which largely deprive indigenous communities from their traditional rights. It hurts their feelings and hence changes their behaviour, which impacts the objective, negatively. Historically, religion being a product of feelings and beliefs has been used as a powerful tool for nature conservation. Making age-old religious entities such as sacred landscapes, sacred groves and sacred species by various cultural groups are the live manifestations of historical, cultural and emotional attachment of human beings with nature and natural resources. The philosophy of religion can continue to be used as a powerful tool for mitigating negative impacts of current anthropogenic pressures on the nature and its resources. With this background, the present review aims to analyse various practices of nature and natural resource conservation as embedded in the religions.

Endangered indigenous knowledge: Assessing locally adopted tree conservation practices in Aleta Wondo district, Sidama regional state, Ethiopia

“…The researcher himself got the chance to physically observe Abbo religious practice in the district, specifically in Wotto kebele (Kebele is the lowest administrative structure in Ethiopia), where there was a large congestion of trees and elders gathering to reconcile the disagreement between individuals. This study is found to be congruent with [ 20 ] finding that confirmed Abbo religious practice in Wonsho has a great contribution to the conservation of biodiversity in the region of his focus [ 11 ]. On his part, confirmed that a sacred area is forested and is associated with deities' (mostly ancestral spirits') rituals and taboos [ 28 , 30 ].…”

“…similarly, asserted that in traditional protected areas not only trees but also wildlife are safeguarded because of their sacredness or spiritual significance to custodian communities. Moreover [ 11 ], revealed that the traditional customary rules prohibit the felling of trees and the killing of animals in the sacred sites. Such customary laws and rules of the local community have contributed to the conservation of trees in Aleta Wondo.…”

“…In addition, it has been confirmed that the early societies, being highly dependent on their physical surroundings, developed their own way of managing the beauties of the environment: all forms of natural resources like forest, soil, water, climate and so on [ 10 ]. Owing to this reason, the problems with the environment that our generation is yelling about have never been serious issues, at least not until the beginning of the second half of the 20th century [ 11 ]. This might be because our ancestral communities developed different mechanisms for the maintenance of the quality of natural resources with consideration of intergenerational equity [ 12 ].…”

Current and future trends in socio-economic, demographic and governance factors affecting global primate conservation

“…If corrective measures are not soon implemented, we will reach a tipping point and lose our closest living biological relatives along with the complex ecosystem services and benefits they provide to forests and people. We also will lose the social, historical, and cultural relationships that have persisted between human primates and nonhuman primates over millennia (Chandra, 2017;Fuentes, 2012;Voigt et al, 2018).…”

Residents’ Perceptions of Socio-Economic Impacts on Pilgrimage Trails: How does the community perceive pilgrimage tourism?

“…As Collins-Kreiner (2010) explains, since the 1980s the study of pilgrimage tourism underwent a shift in focus, changing from analyzing the sites and their characteristics or the overall sociological process of liminality to the subjective experience of the visitors. Since then, research focused on the guests' travel motivations and attitudes (Winter and Gasson 1996;Olsen 2013;Lois-Gonzalez and Santos 2015;Blom, Nilsson and Santos 2016), the guiding received by visitors, (Collins-Kreiner and Gatrell 2006), pilgrim typologies (Ron 2009;Damari and Mansfeld 2016) and authenticity in pilgrims' experience (Belhassen, Caton and Stewart 2008), among other subjects related to the visitors. However, this left the host communities' perceptions on tourism impacts comparatively understudied.…”