Raising public awareness about sacred forests using the biocultural values of ancient trees

摘要: Ancient trees constitute distinctive features of cultural landscapes and they are essential for symbolic, aesthetic and historical reasons for the local societies that live close to them. At the same time, they are important for biodiversity conservation, especially for organisms that depend on them. In the villages of the Pindos mountains, ancient trees exist in public places, such as village squares, and sacred sites, such as churchyards and sacred forests. As part of the project" Conservation through Religion: The sacred forests of Epirus", we created an environmental education package about ancient trees and their cultural and ecological values. We involved different stakeholders (local authorities, National Park, teachers) in the development of the educational material, particularly in defining its aims and structure. The material is aimed at students, local residents and visitors. As a range of socioeconomic factors …