Standing on Sacred Ground

In Ethiopia's Gamo Highlands, the benefits of traditional stewardship are confirmed even as elders witness the decline of spiritual practices that have long protected their natural surroundings and religious tensions erupt into a riot. In the Peruvian Andes, the Q'ero are driven from their ritual site by intolerant Catholics as Q'eros potato farmers face a more ominous foe: climate change.

In Australia's Northern Territory, Aboriginal clans maintain Indigenous Protected Areas and resist the destructive effects of a mining boom. In Hawaii, indigenous ecological and spiritual practices are used to restore the sacred island of Kahoolawe after 50 years of military use as a bombing range.