Activist, Environmental and Social Justice Organizations

Cultural and Spiritual Value of Protected Areas

The Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas (CSVPA) is a specialist group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

The Task Force on the Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas was established in 1998. Anyone who is interested is encouraged to participate, especially if you are willing to invest some time to further the Task Force’s activities. Since all participants in the Task Force, including the Coordinator, are volunteers, its work advances quite slowly.

The WCPA has played an important role in bringing together and disseminating methodologies for the identification and quantification of the economic values of protected areas. This work is complemented by that of the Task Force, which seeks to identify, define, and provide guidelines for managing the Cultural and Spiritual dimensions of protected areas. This work is accomplished through e-mail communication among the network participants, working sessions at major events, such as WCPA meetings, and through individual projects.