Biocultural Conservation: Sacred Forests of India, Ghana, and Sierra Leone

Alison Ormsby teaches Environmental Studies at the University of North Carolina Asheville. She is a human ecologist with 30 years of experience working with people and protected areas, environmental education, and sacred natural sites. She has conducted research at sacred forests in Ghana, India, and Sierra Leone, which will be the focus of this talk. She is a member of the IUCN’s Specialist Group for Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas. Alison has numerous publications about her work, including in the books Asian Sacred Natural Sites, Philosophy and Practice in Protected Areas and Conservation (2016), Sacred Species and Sites: Advances in Biocultural Conservation (2012), Sacred Natural Sites: Conserving Nature and Culture (2010), and Greening the Great Red Island: Madagascar in Nature and Culture (2008).

This will be a virtual talk.