Sacred sites, or indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCAs), are repositories of biological and cultural diversity, the spaces de facto governed by Indigenous peoples or local communities. There are many thousands of these sites across the world, including sacred forests, wetlands, landscapes, village lakes, catchment forests, river and coastal stretches and marine areas. Though the backbone of sacred sites or ICCAs is the robust local governance system of Indigenous/customary institutions and their customary laws/rules, aspects such as institutional analysis, institutional governance, customary laws/rules and management systems are inadequately investigated. This article suggests how customary institutions or rules enable the underlying conservation functions of sacred sites or ICCAs and that due recognition and attention need to be given to indigenous protocols re ICCAs to enable the conservation of biological and cultural diversity. Through enabling legislation or policy, the customary institutions of traditional communities managing the sacred sites can be reinforced and restored. Relevance of sacred sites or ICCAs can be established in biodiversity conservation processes if the resilience of customary institutions and the ability of institutions withstanding external challenges are appreciated.

This article substantiates the essence of ecological ethics in the context of modern scientific research. The emphasis lies on the need to develop a strategy and approach of human behavior amid the natural environment, rational nature management, protection and restoration of the surrounding world. The new methodological thinking is characterized by philosophical foundation of ecological ethics (ecological consciousness, ecological thinking, ecological values, ecological activity, etc.). The idea of development of environmental ethics based on principles of Christian and Philosophic noology is introduced. The world outlook is changing rapidly with its positive and negative aspects. It requires humanization of natural environment as well as a human being by forming ecological consciousness. There is a necessity of humanization of technosphere and abandoning technocratic thinking, which is anti-culture itself and, at times, it endangers human race on the Earth.

The long-term monitoring of the state of the freshwater ecosystem of the River Yenisei revealed the statistically reliable content of heavy metals (Fe, Zn, Cd, Cu, U, etc.) in the water, bottom sediments, phyto- and zoo-plankton, and muscle mass of commercial fish (benthos eaters, predators and herbivorous fish) consuming different types of food. The values of the indices of the ecological state of the Yenisei River were estimated to vary from 2.38 to 2.85. The total index of risk for the water, considering the reference doses, amounts to 0.16 for the water, and to 0.47 for the flesh of commercial fish. The total index of risk for the population consuming freshwater and fish from the Yenisei River amounts to IR=0.63. The obtained value of the index is, in general, of no danger for the population health. Though the carcinogenic substances were not accurately revealed, non-carcinogenic substances were estimated to the level of non-threshold risks. The non-threshold risks of non-carcinogenic substances was found 0.017, far lower than permissible limit 0.050. The ratio of reflectory-olfactory effects and total non-carcinogenic risk was found, respectively, 0.01 and 0.34. The integrated indictor was 0.35, which did not exceed the regulatory level (II=1). Conclusively, the risks associated to various analyzed indicators did not exceed the permissible levels and did not require additional measures of monitoring the water quality.

Participation has both an intrinsic and instrumental value, and livelihood enhancement is achieved by fostering the effective engagement with the target community. As an implementation agency for the Karnataka Watershed Development Agency in Chitradurga district, MYRADA followed the building block approach. This meant that there was enough engagement with the village community in organising affinity groups involved in credit activities, before wider village level institutions were crafted. In this article, it is examined whether such an engagement lead to effective decision-making with respect to the soil and water conservation treatment undertaken on the farmers’ land. Contrary to the theoretical proposition of the Olson (1965) that smaller the size better is the provisioning of the collective good, present field study found that provisioning by such groups could also lead to a bad outcome.

The present study was carried out to evaluate the response of different bioagents/biofungicides and growth regulators on seed germination and early seedling growth of sunflower. Eleven (11) treatments were established for the present investigation. Higher germination was observed in T5, T6/T7, T10 and T11 treatments in contrast to other treatments. Treatments T7, T3 and T11 were found significantly better than all other treatments. Generally, root and shoot length increased with the advancement of growth stages. T4 showed higher number of secondary roots in comparison to all other treatments. The shoot length and root length in all the cases (irrespective of the cultivars: DRSH-1, DRSF-108, LSFH-171) were highly influenced by the bioinoculants and chemicals; however, influence of bioagents was found better than the chemicals. Similarly, the seedling weight in 96 hours after sowing and 144 hours after sowing in all the cultivars was reported higher than when the seeds were treated with bioinoculants, which reflected the efficacy of the bioinoculants compared to others.