Conclusions and Preludes: The Many Lives of Sacred Forests

Many of Asia’s sacred groves consist of small islands of trees within veritable seas of agricultural land and urban industrial sprawl, but many still embody the values of a single moral community of humans and non-humans, all partaking in the shared productivity of a cosmopolity inseparable from ecology. This chapter begins with a short summary of some of the common features of Asia’s sacred forests. The importance of sacred groves in socioecological and biocultural systems is emphasized by several authors offering concise overviews of the role of indigenous sacred natural sites in conservation. The chapter ends with some thoughts on how a long-term view of Asia’s sacred forests may help engender greater creative, inclusive, and socially just resource governance in response to the interlocking crises of the Anthropocene.