Sacred sites worldwide are under threat and Anthony Thorley and the writer Celia Gunn, his wife, are in the forefront of global initiatives to save them.

They have completed a major world study of sacred sites and their protection for the Gaia Foundation which is working internationally to strengthen cultural and biological diversity. "We identified that there was indeed a global crisis," said Anthony.

Globalisation and expanding Western commodification of the traditional landscape has placed many sacred sites under terminal threat, and at all levels, from international agencies to local communities, the need for urgent action now appears to be accepted.

Debates and protests over presenting Stonehenge in a better light, or saving the Rotherwas Ribbon at Hereford from a road project – or, in Ireland, the fight to stop the desecration of historic Tara by a new motorway – have their counterparts all over the world. The challenge to the western mindset is to embrace a more holistic and "enchanted" viewpoint, say Anthony and Celia, such as that evidenced by the increasing interest in the prehistoric Stone Age culture of the Atlantic seaboard, although there is now a growing realisation among environmentalists that a more spiritual relationship with the ecosphere is necessary.

"The sort of material you present in your weekly page often has that kind of quality about it," Anthony told me. "People who are looking just beyond the obvious into something a little different and seeing how it enriches their lives and lives around them. I think it's a very important process that's going on. Great oaks grow from little acorns."

■ Sacred Sites: An Overview, in full and abridged versions, is available at www.gaiafoundation.org