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Owing to its unique strategic position on the northern coast of the Black Sea, Crimea has, since Antiquity, been a highly diverse, multi-ethnic, multi-religious location. Throughout history, the peninsula’s landscapes were shaped and transformed under the influence of its ever-changing populations. In this process, religion played a crucial role. Nowadays, Crimea abounds in sacred sites in the same way as it abounds in culturally and religiously diverse inhabitants.
Rebirth in the 1990s of the religious and cultural life that had been repressed for over seventy years of the Soviet rule gave a powerful impetus to the revival of Crimea’s sacred landscapes and enabled the different ethno-religious groups residing in the peninsula to re-establish the bond with the home of their ancestors. The notion of landscape as a memoryscape became central in this context, since it is the landscape that records, as well as reflects, the events in history. The sites communally regarded as sacred unite the people as much as common memories transmitted from one generation to the other do.
The objectives of the theoretical part of this thesis are twofold. On the one hand, it aims to grasp the connection between religion, landscape and memory, whereby sacred sites are seen as landscapes of memory and anchors of people’s cultural and religious identity. On the other hand, it seeks to explore the specific issues pertinent to the Crimean socio-cultural context, such as the peninsula’s history and the evolving ethno-religious relationships among the diverse local population, which have impacted the development and protection of Crimea’s sacred sites overtime. Method employed is the comparative literature review, whereby for each chapter a selection of authors was made, whose contributions towards the discussion of the aforementioned issues have been particularly relevant.
Based on the theoretical background described above, the empirical section of the research targets two main groups of actors: the state on the one side, and the organizations representing local religious groups on the other. In relation to the state, the objective is to explore how the religious revival of the post-Soviet period correlates with Ukraine’s current policies towards the safeguarding of Crimea’s sacred landscapes, namely, to what extent they are being protected under the existing legislation, and which of the aspects are given most attention in the process. In relation to the organizations representing local religious groups, the task is to investigate to what degree the sacred sites under study remain relevant for various groups, and to establish how the knowledge about the local sacred places and their importance is being disseminated both within these groups and beyond.
In order to fulfill these tasks, the set of indicators has been developed, which takes into consideration the specific Crimean socio-cultural context, and a selection of case studies has been made, which in their totality reflect the viewpoints of Crimea’s prominent religious groups. The case studies are: (1) the Assumption Monastery, (2) the cave town of Chufut Kale with Balta Tiymez Karaite cemetery, and (3) the old town of Bakhchisaray with Salachiq historic district and Gazy Mansur cemetery. All of the three case studies are located on the territory of Bakhchisaray Historical and Cultural Preserve (BHCP).
The evaluation of the Ukrainian state’s policies with regards to safeguarding of the selected sacred sites revealed that while many of their elements are recognized as cultural heritage of high significance, protection activities are impeded by substantial obstacles of administrative nature, as well as by the lack general planning. Moreover, conservation and day-to-day management is carried out with little consideration for the opinions of the local people and with the insufficient involvement of the latter.
The indicator-based assessment of relevance of the selected sacred locations for various local religious groups and the ways, in which the knowledge about these sites is being spread exposed a number of clear tendencies, as well as highlighted the existing challenges and deficiencies which need to be urgently addressed, so as to ensure the safeguarding of the studied sites for the future generations.
Cultural landscapes are areas of exceptional beauty, containing superlative natural phenomena and are of ecological importance. At present cultural landscapes and wetlands are the most spectacular global issues for economic growth and balancing of ecosystems. The Sundarbans has an outstanding universal value where the cultural landscape was shared by the indigenous pastoral society over thousand years ago and it is still visible. The site is representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of mangrove ecosystems and communities of plants and animals. It is situated in the Ganges transboundary catchment which is known as the single largest stretch of productive mangrove ecosystems in the world. It covers 10,000 km² between Bangladesh and India. The Sundarbans portion of Bangladesh is about 62 % and covers an area of 6017 km². It was declared as world natural heritage site by the UNESCO in 1997 and as a Ramsar site in 1992 already. There is an agglomeration of biodiversity with 66 different species of mangroves growing there. For comparison: 70 species of mangroves are found in the world. A large part of mangrove wetlands in Bangladesh, almost 45 %, have disappeared within the last three decades. The Gorai River is the main tributary of the Ganges which supplies downstream freshwater to the Sundarbans and ensures the ecosystems balance in the coastal region. Since the diversion of the Ganges water at Farakka Barrage in India from early 1975, the salinity level has increased drastically in the south western part of the region. Due to the reduction of the Ganges flows the industries are facing serious problems. Inequality control of the products and fragile affects are demonstrating on agriculture, fisheries, navigation, and hydromorphology, quality of drinking water and mangrove wetlands ecosystems. As a result, about 170,000 hectares (20.4%) of new land has been affected by various degrees of salinity during the last three decades. 38 % of the country’s territory and 33 % of its population is already affected by salinity intrusions. The saline front defined by the 0.5 dS/m isohaline has penetrated in the Nabaganga River as far north as Magura is far from the coast (240 km). Similarly about 6 dS/m has penetrated 173 km from the Sea in the Atharobanka River to the vicinity of the off-take from the Madhumati River. The research findings are showing 10805-21610 dS/m salinity is the best productive range in Sundarbans, where only 20 % of the area is within 32415 dS/m range of salinity and 80 % of the area (4813.60 km²) has a salinity rate over 32414 dS/m. The dominant species Heritiera fomes and Ceriops decendra are affected by top-dying disease which is recognised as key management concern. Procedures of water salinity modelling of 13 rivers in the Sundarbans region lay out increasing salinity trends. Fourier Polynomial Models have been done on 13 rivers where the time series approach (4 years) has been considered. The results show that only one river has crossed the salinity threshold line of 20 ppt or 43,220 dS/m which was the maximum value in 2000. Whereas 6 rivers have crossed in 2001, 8 rivers have crossed in 2002 and important 11 rivers have crossed the water salinity threshold line in 2003. According to average peak values of river water salinity there are 4 rivers (basin 1, 2, 3 and 4) that are in good condition, two rivers (basin 7 and 9) carry the moderate situation and 7 rivers (basin 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 13) carry the high salinity rate in the dry season, which are major threats for mangrove ecosystems in the Sundarbans. The high salinity zone is located in the south-western corner of the Sundarbans; the previous values were 38,898-54,025 dS/m while the present values are 54,025 – 69,152 dS/m. Furthermore the area has been extended from South to North and East to West direction. The Fourier Polynomial models show the cyclic increasing behaviour of water salinity in the Sundarbans Rivers. Considering the results of all models and threshold values of water salinity for the Sundarbans case, it is clearly indicated and forecasted the message that upstream fresh water supply is necessary and emergent for the protection of cultural landscapes and mangrove wetlands ecosystems in the Sundarbans region. As priority is given by surface water salinity modelling, statements are formulated to support planning activities and to protect a special natural heritage site. The findings of this study would be a potential contribution to make a comprehensive management plan for the long-term conservation and protection of the cultural landscape and mangrove wetlands ecosystem in the Sundarbans region.