'The 'key-log' which must be moved to release the evolutionary process for a land ethic is simply this: quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem. Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise'.

Alldo Leopold, A Land Ethic.

http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/landethic.html

The establishment of protected areas is the result of conscious choices of human societies to conserve nature, biodiversity and areas of special cultural value and significance. Individuals and communities often use protected areas for spiritual reasons, because they inspire and heal them and/or provide them with a place for peace, education and communion with the natural world.

Many trans-boundary protected areas have already been promoted and managed as areas for peace and cooperation, thus adding a tangible and valuable dimension of peace-building among peoples, nations and communities.

Protected areas serve as fundamental tools for conservation of nature, and thus are an expression of the highest desires and commitments of humankind for the preservation of life on the planet, and that as such, those areas constitute places of deep reverence and ethical realization.

Many societies, especially indigenous and traditional peoples, recognise sacred places and engage in traditional practices for the protection of geographical areas, nature, ecosystems, or species, as an expression of societal or cultural choice and of their worldview of the sacredness of nature and its inextricable links with culture. They also recognise sacred places as a unique source of knowledge and understanding of their own culture thus providing what could be

considered the equivalent of a university. 

http://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2010/10/wpcrecs513eng.pdf

Three ideas emerge from human social evolution: the idea of a designed Earth; the idea of the influence of environment on culture; and the idea of a system of values about how to handle nature for sustainable just shares.  these ideas may be handled within a spiritual framework of 'multifaith conservation curricula of the heart'.

http://www.conservationcurriculaoftheheart.wikispaces.com