Guidelines on the management of sacred natural sites

Coordinator:

Robert Wild, Independent Consultant, Turks and Caicos Islands

Toby McLeod, Sacred Land Film Project of Earth Island Institute, U.S.A.

Status: Delivered the IUCN UNESCO Guidelines on the management of Sacred Natural Sites. Translation and testing of the guidelines is in progress.

Description:

One of the major outputs of the Task Force has been the development of technical guidelines for the recognition and management of sacred natural sites.  A first draft was written prior to the World Parks Congress (Durban, 2003), which was discussed at the Congress based on case studies from around the world, and a revised version was produced post-Congress.  This revised version was then discussed again at the World Expo Symposium, Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes (Tokyo, May-June, 2005) in the light of more recent experience, and a new version is being circulated for comment and eventual publication.

Deliverables:

• Phase 1:  a revised version of the guidelines based on outputs from the World Expo

Symposium and comments from protected area managers.

• Phase 2:  a project proposal for publication of the guidelines as part of the IUCN/WCPA protected areas guidelines series.