This is the second volume in the new series on the Values of Protected Landscapes and Seascapes produced by the Protected Landscapes Task Force of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

In launching the series early in 2008, we explained the rationale behind protected landscapes: some lived-in landscapes are so important for conservation and sustainable development that they deserve special protection and IUCN has recognised such landscapes in which effective national or local conservation measures are already in place as Category V protected areas: Protected Landscape and Seascapes.

As protected areas based on the interactions of people and nature over time, these places sustain biological and cultural diversity, as well as being valuable in many other ways. We explained too that, while the Protected Landscapes Task Force had begun to document these values1, we felt that there was need for more detailed examination, explanation and advocacy of these landscapes in order to promote a wider understanding of the range of benefits that Category V protected areas have to offer: hence, the publication of this series on the values of Protected Landscapes and Seascapes, in which each volume will explore the different values that this category provides through a set of case studies preceded by a synthesis section discussingthe lessons to be learnt.The first volume in the series, Protected Landscapes andAgrobiodiversity Values2, was well received. We are confidentthat this second volume, The Cultural and SpiritualValues of Protected Landscapes, will be equally useful to awide range of practitioners and policy makers. In producingthis volume we worked in partnership with the WCPATask Force on the Cultural and Spiritual Values of ProtectedAreas (CVSPA) and we are delighted that Volume II willbe published in both English and Spanish, with the Spanishversion due out later this year.