Project description
Planning with nature and culture
A holistic approach to environmental stewardship hinges on the convergence of ecological health, Indigenous or local cultural knowledge, inclusive community participation, and social justice. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SACREDFORESTS project is building a framework that weaves together spiritual ecology, local knowledge, and spatial planning to foster inclusive landscape governance. The overall goal is to advance equity, diversity, and global policy learning through the active engagement of marginalised communities and to amplify the voices of Indigenous and Global South communities. Ultimately, by moving research into active community engagement, the project advances equity and diversity in global environmental decision-making.
Objective
This project addresses the urgent need for innovative, participatory approaches to the conservation of Sacred Forests—landscapes with deep spiritual, cultural, and ecological significance. By bridging biocultural governance and spatial planning, the research develops and field-tests an interdisciplinary toolkit that integrates community knowledge, spiritual ecology, and policy co-design in partnership with academic and non-academic organizations across the UK and EU. The objectives are to map and valorise spiritual and ecological values in sacred forests; analyse governance systems using the Values-Rules-Knowledge model; co-design adaptive stewardship tools rooted in traditional ecological knowledge; and integrate biocultural frameworks into mainstream conservation policy.
The project foregrounds equity and diversity by actively engaging marginalized and underrepresented communities, and builds global policy learning by elevating Indigenous and Global South voices. The fellowship will co-develop a Sacred Greenways Toolkit (SGT), an interdisciplinary, participatory framework that translates spiritual ecology and community knowledge into governance tools and spatial planning methods for the UK and Europe. Training objectives focus on participatory GIS, legal analysis, biodiversity monitoring, and public science communication. Impact will be realised through academic, policy, and societal pathways. Scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed publications, open-access datasets, and methodological innovations bridging spiritual ecology and planning sciences. Hosted at Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, with placements at Navdanya International and the Forest Peoples Programme, the fellowship enables advanced research and impactful career development in sustainable landscape governance, offering direct benefits to policy, practice, and community resilience. This innovation directly addresses the EU’s call for nature-culture integration.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences physical geography cartography geographic information systems
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture agroecology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
CV1 5FB Coventry
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.