Environmentalists are to campaign for the protection of the
ancient sacred sites of tribal religions, as a way of saving
endangered wildlife. The "skull caves" in Kenya, a Mexican
desert where it is believed the sun was born, a "spiritual park"
in the Peruvian Andes and West African islands where sex is
banned are among sites being fought for at a giant
intergovernmental conservation conference in Brazil this week.
The million-pound Conservation of Biodiversity-Rich Sacred
Natural Sites campaign springs from a recognition that many of
the mountains, forests, islands, lakes and groves revered by
indigenous peoples contain rare that are threatened elsewhere.
CONSERVING BIODIVERSITY BECOMES SACRED QUEST A lake in the
mountains (Cayambe-Coca/Ecuador). (Rainer Heubeck / Still
Pictures) This is no accident. Ancient traditions and taboos
surrounding the sites have often commanded respect for nature,
prohibited hunting, or simply kept people away. Rigoberta
Menchu, the Guatemalan Indian leader and 1992 Nobel Peace Pr