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Spiritual Ecology, Sacred Places, and Biodiversity ConservationLeslie E. Sponsel Fieldwork has been conducted since 1986 within a 100 km. radius of Pattani in southern Thailand in collaboration with ecologist Nukul Ruttanadakul, botanist Samporn Juntadach, and other colleagues in the Biology Section of Prince of Songkla University. DescriptionSpiritual Ecology: Since the 1960s there has been growing interest in spiritual ecology, and this interest accelerated markedly in the 1990s with an increasing number of conferences and publications. Spiritual ecology focuses on the relationships between religions and environments from the local to the global levels to address environmental crises, problems, and issues. This reflects the growing realization of numerous and diverse individuals and organizations that greener environmental world views, attitudes, and values are the most fundamental prerequisite for resolving environmental concerns, and that this in turn requires a profound rethinking of the meaning of nature and of the place of humans in it. Thus spiritual ecology operates at two levels, theoretical and practical. The latter includes religious organizations as well as individual spirituality.
Sacred Places: One component of spiritual ecology is sacred places which range along several continua (natural to anthropogenic, biophysical to sociocultural, prehistoric to recent, etc.). These places are special because of some extraordinary attributes that stimulate feelings of power, mystery, awe, transcendence, peace, and healing.
During periodic visits to southern Thailand from 1986-89 the cultural ecology of adjacent Buddhist and Muslim villages was compared. This was in collaboration with ecologist Nukul Ruttanadakul and other biologists as well as anthropologists at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani. Support was provided by grants from the University of Hawaii Research Council and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Methods and Applications: The team approach to all of this research is holistic and multidisciplinary. It draws on elements from a wide and diverse range of disciplines and specializations: geology, geography, biological ecology, cultural ecology, historical ecology, spiritual ecology, biodiversity studies, conservation biology, environmental philosophy, environmental ethics, environmental education, ethnohistory, ethnography, ethnozoology, ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, and religious studies. The research has practical as well as theoretical implications in terms of promoting cultural identity and cultural and historic preservation as well as environmental and biodiversity conservation.
ResultsThis ongoing research has been reported in invited papers on various aspects of spiritual ecology and sacred places in Thailand at numerous and diverse professional conferences including the Forest History Work Group (Canberra, Australia 1988), the Pacific Science Congress (Honolulu 1991), American Anthropological Association (1991, 1995, 1996, 1998), International Conference on Thai Studies (London 1993, Chiang Mai 1996), Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions (Cambridge 1996, 1997, 1998), University of Kent (Canterbury, UK 1996), and UNESCO (Paris 1998). Revised conference papers were published as chapters in edited books and journal articles listed below.
Publications1988 "Buddhism, Ecology and Forests in Thailand," Leslie E. Sponsel and Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel in Changing Tropical Forests: Historical Perspectives on Today's Challenges in Asia, Australasia, and Oceania, John Dargavel, Kay Dixon, and Noel Semple, eds. Canberra, Australia: Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, pp. 305-325 . 1991 "Nonviolent Ecology: The Possibilities of Buddhism," L.E. Sponsel and P. Natadecha-Sponsel in Buddhism and Nonviolent Global Problem-Solving: Ulan Bator Explorations, Glenn D. Paige and Sarah Gilliatt, eds. Honolulu, HI: Center for Global Nonviolence and Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, pp. 139-150. 1992 "Thailand: Buddhism, Ecology and Forests," L.E. Sponsel and P. Natadecha-Sponsel) The New Road (Gland, Switzerland) December 1991-January 1992, 21:4-5. 1992 "A Comparison of the Cultural Ecology of Adjacent Muslim and Buddhist Villages in Southern Thailand: A Preliminary Field Report," L.E. Sponsel and P. Natadecha-Sponsel in Journal of the National Research Council of Thailand (Bangkok) 23(2):31-42. 1993 "The Relevance of Buddhism for the Development of an Environmental Ethic for the Conservation of Biodiversity," L.E. Sponsel and P. Natadecha-Sponsel in Ethics, Religion, and Biodiversity: Relations Between Conservation and Cultural Values, Lawrence S. Hamlton, ed. Cambridge, U.K.: White Horse Press, pp. 75-97. 1995 "The Role of Buddhism in Creating a More Sustainable Society in Thailand," L.E. Sponsel and P. Natadecha-Sponsel in Counting the Costs: Economic Growth and Environmental Change in Thailand, Jonathan Rigg, ed. Singapore: Institute for Southeast Asia Studies, pp. 27-46, 1997 "A Theoretical Analysis of the Potential Contribution of the Monastic Community in Promoting a Green Society in Thailand," L.E. Sponsel and P. Natadecha-Sponsel in Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds, Mary Evelyn Tucker and Duncan Williams, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, pp. 45-68. 1997 "Environment and Nature: Buddhism," L.E. Sponsel in Encyclopaedia of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Helaine Selin, ed. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 290-291. 1998 "Sacred and/or Secular Approaches to Biodiversity Conservation in Thailand," L.E. Sponsel, P. Natadecha-Sponsel, Nukul Ruttanadakul, and Somporn Juntadach, invited by guest editor Kay Milton for the special issue on biodiversity of the journal Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 2(1):155-167. 2001, "Human Impact on Biodiversity, Overview," in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Simon Asher Levin, Editor-in-Chief, San Diego, CA: Academic Press 3:395-409. 2001, "Do Anthropologists Need Religion, and Vice Versa? Adventures and Dangers in Spiritual Ecology," New Drections in Anthropology and Environment: Intersections, Carole Crumley, ed., Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, pp. 177-200. 2001 "Is Indigenous Spiritual Ecology a New Fad?: Reflections from the Historical Ecology of Hawaii and the Ecological Transition," in Indigenous Traditions and Ecology, John Grim, ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, pp. 159-174. 2001 "Why a Tree is More than a Tree? Reflections on the Spiritual Ecology of Sacred Trees in Thailand," L.E. Sponsel and Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel, Santi Pracha Dhamma, Sulak Sivaraksa, et al., eds., Bangkok, Thailand: Santi Pracha Dhamma Institute, pp. 364-373.. 2001, Sanctuaries of Culture and Nature: Sacred Places and Biodiversity Conservation, L.E. Sponsel, ed. (edited book manuscript under review). 2001, Thailand: Explorations in Ecology, Culture and Religion, L.E. Sponsel and P. Natadecha-Sponsel (first draft of book completed). 2001, Natural Wisdom: Meditations on Buddhist Ecology from Thailand, L.E. Sponsel and P. Natadecha-Sponsel (first draft of book completed).
ServiceSince 1998 Sponsel has served on the Advisory Board for the Forum on Religion and Ecology (FORE) at Harvard University and since 2000 on the Task Force on Asia for the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. For more information contact:
The Department of Anthropology offers a concentration in spiritual ecology within the ecological anthropology specialization. For literature, websites, and othr resources on spiritual ecology, sacred places, and related matters see these course websites at: http://www.blackboard.hawaii.edu. (Click on Course Catalog, click on Preview, type into the Search Box either Anth 415 or Anth 422, then click Go, then click on Anth 415 or Preview.
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The same sacred place may be recognized as special by individuals from very different cultures, religions, histories, and ecologies, although they may interpret it quite differently. Many sacred places, particularly in nature, may promote environmental and biodiversity conservation, since local communities recognize them as special and prescribe certain behaviors in relation to them.
Since 1988 research explored in depth aspects of Buddhist ecology, including environmental philosophy, ethics, and actions in relation to forests and their conservation in southern Thailand. During the summers of 1994-1995 while on an invited Fulbright Research Fellowship in the Biology Section at Prince of Songkla University, L.E. Sponsel collaborated with Thai biology colleagues in a preliminary survey of the role of sacred places in biodiversity conservation. The focus was on individual sacred trees and on sacred groves. More intensive field research on this subject is planned for the near future with the additional collaboration of several colleagues from the U.S.A.
Most recently this ongoing research on spiritual ecology and
sacred places has started to incorporate a broader controlled
comparison. This comparative research will begin with an exploration
of one sacred mountain in each of these regions: Thailand, Hawaii,
California, New Mexico, and Venezuela. The purpose is to begin
developing a general theoretical model of sacred places in nature
which integrates a diversity of approaches, and tests the efficacy
of 
In 2002 we started developing another new project which focuses
on the ecological relationships among Buddist monks,