Dr Edwin BERNBAUM

Co-Chair, WCPA Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas (CSVPA), IUCN

Edwin Bernbaum, Ph.D., is Co-Chair of the IUCN Specialist Group on the Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas (CSVPA) and Senior Fellow at the Instituto de Montaña. A scholar of comparative religion and mythology, his conservation work focuses on the spiritual and cultural significance of nature. The first edition of his book Sacred Mountains of the World won the Commonwealth Club of California's gold medal for nonfiction. An updated second edition will be published in 2022 by Cambridge University Press. He has consulted on the proposed World Heritage nomination of Mount Kailas in Tibet and initiated and directed a program to develop interpretive materials with US National Parks based on the cultural and spiritual significance of natural features in cultures around the world.