“… it is not surprising that the natural resources and species of protected areas are often systematically investigated and their features and values are generally relatively well-known and communicated, while the cultural and landscape values are not, and the sacred dimension has been largely neglected.”
Väisänen (2012)
[…]
Tools, best practices and techniques are needed to better understand, investigate, manage and communicate the spiritual and cultural values of protected areas.
Rauno Väisänen asks why should the sacred dimension of protected areas of nature be taken into consideration, and explores the answer from the protected area practitioner’s point of view. In his estimation, science based approaches – while important – to natural environment management may overlook the spiritual or sacred dimension of the landscape and the forests, leading to intangible losses in cultural heritage and contemporary value.
The recognition of the spiritual and cultural values of protected areas increases and deepens the relevance of parks and nature to people. It is very narrow-minded to try to define the significance of nature in the conventional utilitarian or purely natural scientific way, when a multidimensional approach would make nature conservation sensible even to such people who don’t care about the identification of species or even about the conservation of birds or beetles.
Väisänen (2012)
TREE PEOPLE by Ritva Kovalainen and Sanni Seppo
‘Tree People’ provides a comprehensive picture of the traditional beliefs of [Finland’s] ancestors concerning trees and forests and of the remnants of this tradition that Finns still carry within them.
Finnish prose and poetry stresses the value of unspoiled forests as a reservoir of spiritual energy. The forest reflects feelings of fear and security. It is seen as bringing out people’s deepest, largely unconscious wishes. Intensive forestry has diminished the forest’s protective characteristics. It has been blamed for the destruction of a lost paradise.
Kovalainen & Seppo, 2014
