Most sacred natural sites in Kurdistan Province (Marivan and Baneh County) served as burial grounds to the villages and they are seen as an abode of their ancestors’ body and soul and they have been strictly protected by local people as “sacred groves”. Sacred groves are appropriate for consideration in protected area strategies because local people show great willingness to protect and conserve sacred groves in the north part of Zagros oak forest in Iran. Sacred groves are protected through taboos and strict rules, including the prohibition of livestock grazing, hunting, and collection of fodder, edible plants for commercial use, lumber, and fuel-wood and every villages has its own scared groves with different treatments. Local people protect sacred groves from land encroachment and wildfires by light pollarding and collecting dead branches to establish a hedge around the sacred grove. These stands are very important because of some reason including first, local people have been protecting these sites freely, Second, these stands almost shows the real intact Zagros forest without disturbances, third, pollarded woodland around them can be a good indicator to study them in any point of scientific (Socio-ecological) view. Last but not the least, these stands have been decreasing in current 20 years (because of changing their values and taboos especially for young people and economic conditions) and there is a chance to convince government and other international organization to protect them
