04 Mar Proceedings of the Second Workshop of the Delos Initiative

We are pleased to announce the release of the book ‘The Sacred Dimension of Protected Areas, Proceedings of the Second Workshop of the Delos Initiative’.
The workshop was organised on 24-27 October 2007 in Ouranoupolis, Greece and hosted by Med-INA, in the framework of the IUCN/WCPA Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas.

The Ouranoupolis meeting was attended by 22 participants from 11 countries. During the first part of the meeting case studies regarding indigenous peoples and mainstream faiths were presented, which included  Dhimurru in Northern Australia, the San Francisco Peaks of California,  Foreste Casentinesi of Italy,  Jabal Lâ’lam in Morocco, Mani San Mount in South Korea and  Solovetsky Islands of Russia. During the second part of the workshop, the management of monastic lands and facilities was explored, with examples from Mount Athos in Greece,  Buila Vinturarita in Romania, Chryssopigi Monastery in Crete, Greece, Poblet Monastery and Sakya Tashi Ling in Catalonia, Spain and Rila Monastery in Bulgaria. Finally, in the third part of the meeting, the way to achieve synergy between spiritual and conservation concerns was investigated.    The participants explored ways of strengthening the conservation of the natural and spiritual heritage in these and other similar sites, as well as the role the conservation community could play.

The publication is available in both paperback and electronic format. If you wish to acquire a copy, please contact the Publications Service of IUCN at books@iucn.org  (website: www.iucn.org/publications) or the Med-INA Secretariat at ilyratzaki@med-ina.org.