When environment becomes literally sacred

This article, written by Dr. Akhila S. Nair was published in The Ethiopian Herald of 11th January. To read it there, Click Here.

Being an environmentalist, I was always attracted by one of the social theories about origin of religions – the one which proclaims that religions originated along with the origin of ‘totems’ among aborigines. Early men revered plants, animals and natural elements as their group’s strength and protector. This led to their groping according to the plant, animal or the natural element that they worshiped. Such groups are called ‘totemic groups’ and the plant, animal or natural element is called ‘totem’. 

Social scientists have noted that the cardinal characteristic of religions is that they divide everything into sacred and profane. Sacred belonged to the divine and the profane, for our mundane life. Consequently everything that belonged to the sacred category was segregated from the profane. Thus evolved were sacred animals, sacred mountains and sacred plants. Such symbols are aplenty among religions. Hinduism, for example, has got many such symbols in its belief system. Christianity and Islam are not different. 

An impressive consequence of such sacred-profane divide was the evolution of sacred groves. Sacred groves are holy sites with rich biodiversity and traditional beliefs. Since sacred and holy, such green consortiums remain protected and preserved without anyone instructing anyone to do so. That means conservation of sacred groves easily becomes the community’s need than any environmentalist’s cry. 

Sacred groves can be part of a worship place or divine monument. They symbolize man’s gratitude to the Mother Earth for the opulent resources she has provided. They serve to be undisturbed asylums for many unknown plant and animal species. Sacred groves are rich with diverse medicinal plants, indigenous flora and fauna. Religions impose social taboos which become socially imposed restrictions. Hence the protection of sacred groves becomes the natural obligation of concerned religion’s members. Different religions along India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Ethiopia and Kenya have this culture of nurturing sacred groves. 

In Ethiopia

Sacred groves get their Ethiopian manifestation majorly in the form of church forests. Church forests in Ethiopia are usually small land areas considered as saintly by the local population with a church at the centre. They are endowed with diverse types of indigenous plants, animals, birds and microorganisms.  Hills along northern, southern and central Ethiopia are usually spotted with a monastery or church having in its surroundings, remnants of thick forests of the past.  Studies have identified more than 35000 church forests in the country, with their sizes ranging from 1 acre to 300 hectares. 

Photos above show the sacred forest treasure of island monasteries at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The lake has more than 20 islands housing monasteries. Each monastery is surrounded by thick vegetation which usually people keep away from considering their sacred value. Photo: SIVAKUMAR K.P.

Some of these forests date back even up to fourth century and remain to be glaring relics of the age-old Afromotane forests.   Local people try to protect them because of religious and cultural beliefs. For example, one of the beliefs is that the church forests of Ethiopia are representations of the Garden of Eden demanding our love and care.  Ultimately, due to such faiths, chances of exploitation become minimized. 

If you search for the first indigenous initiative in Ethiopia to safeguard biodiversity, your query would end at the country’s church forests. Ethiopian sacred landscapes include mountains, water bodies and graveyards which are abode for various species of plants ranging from herbs to shrubs and trees. Such localities are also gene pools of diverse, rare indigenous species. Native sacred forests are also sources of germplasm. They remain to be efficient indicator sites of the original ecological landscape, providing excellent gateway to the study and practice of in situ forest conservation and ecological restoration. 

This author could go through a worthy case study of 2009 from Southwestern Ethiopia about the biocultural diversity of sacred sites. It shows that the biodiversity contained in small sacred forest patches of Gamo highlands could successfully withstand a prolific agricultural encroachment and illegal logging, only because it was ‘sacred’.  

Challenges

As the country is surging fast through development in diverse arenas, the pressure on the sacred groves are also furthering. Researchers have reported that because of the population growth, urbanization, insufficient implementation of land use policies, social inequality and poor monitoring of post development activities, there has been an enhancement in the exploitation of sacred sites of the country. 

Many salient features including the medicinal plant diversity of native sacred forests are yet to be studied. In Ethiopia, people depend on many indigenous medicinal plants for human health care and for veterinary purpose. Still, cultivation of medicinal plants is not yet popular. Instead, practitioners and their patients usually resort to many wild varieties of medicinal plants both in natural and sacred forests of their proximity.  

In their 2013 study, Catherine and co-researchers reported that in northern part of Ethiopia, the sacred groves were surrounded by deforested, agricultural and grazing lands.  Most of the groves had no clear fencing. Worshipers, disciples, church leaders, and grazing animals enter and leave the forests throughout the day. Many church forests were cleared and converted to coffee plantations. 

Sacred forests of Ethiopia constitute a strong link between the faith and the conservation practices. Saving sacred forests means saving precious repositories of rare, indigenous biodiversity. Since religion as a social reality could set right norms, the process of conservation becomes automatically community initiatives. Since most of the country’s population is strictly religious, church forests can easily well ingrain the ideal of environmental conservation among the worshipers. Let’s be more proactive towards our church forests and other sacred natural assets.  

- Dr. Akhila S. Nair, Asst. Professor in Environmental Science Programme, Ambo University.