From religion to conservation: unfolding 300 years of collective action in a Greek sacred forest

Sacred Natural Sites are integrated-coupled systems with mutual social and natural interactions, and they exist within a variety of local cultures and regions of the world. In Europe and especially in the Mediterranean basin, changing land use patterns and population decline since World War II have had a dramatic impact on the socio-ecological structure and management practices of many of such sites. At the same time, old beliefs and taboos are often neglected due to modernization, rural depopulation, and change in community's structure, norms, and codes. Understanding how social, ecological, and policy processes changed through time becomes thus relevant to identify the main criteria for effective collective action and sustainability of the studied systems. In this paper, we applied Ostrom's social–ecological systems framework to model the main socio-ecological processes acting upon a sacred forest in Epirus (Greece) over a 300 years' period. The multidisciplinary approach included collection of archival and ecological data and ethnographic research (semi-structured interviews). Results indicate that significant changes have occurred in social, economic, political, and institutional terms since the creation of the settlement (17th century). However, the sacred grove has been of major importance to the adjacent local community that acts as its custodian guardian even nowadays. Collective action for the preservation of the forest has been achieved under various governance regimes that transformed through time traditional religious taboos into modern conservation approaches. This analysis revealed that local traditional management practices of commons can serve as successful socio-ecological conservation examples. •Novel adaptation of the Ostrom's SES framework to Sacred Natural Sites.•Study of stakeholders' perceptions on a sacred forest and its management practices.•Despite socio-economic changes, the sacred forest is still relevant for the local community.•Collective action for the forest preservation achieved under many governance regimes.•Local management practices of commons serve as successful conservation examples.