ABSTRACT
The integration of cultural communities into the environmental movement is an opportunity to unlock an untapped resource for the care and protection of nature. The incidental cultural and societal meanings of particular symbols do not stand in isolation. To use them, they have to be set within an enveloping framework of historical and contemporary human relationships. The incorporation of the awareness of the perceived connections with the fundamental principles and processes of community engagement can play a role in the winning over hearts and minds for the care and protection of nature. The approach to building commitments to nature through the awareness and understanding of the cultural and everyday meanings of flora and fauna concerns everyone. Multicultural interpretation of the natural environment is an approach that recognizes the historical interaction between nature and people within an ongoing global relationship.
