Abstract
This book chapter highlights the affinities between traditional spirituality and sustainability. Across global and local contexts, development initiatives have often privileged outsider perspectives and technocratic interventions that misalign with local worldviews. Consequently, many climate change adaptation efforts have proved ineffective and unsustainable, shaped by foreign agendas and external funding. Moreover, many traditional knowledge-holders perceive modern development models as grounded in materialism, consumerism, and excess, rendering them incongruent with their local values and cosmologies. Set against this background, the chapter calls for a paradigmatic shift in research, policy, and practice to better harness the synergies between traditional spirituality and sustainable development. Such alignment promises adaptation strategies that are not only more effective and enduring but also more equitable, ethical, and culturally grounded. The chapter also introduces this volume—Handbook of Traditional Spirituality and Sustainability—outlining its structure, thematic focus, and individual contributions across seven regional and conceptual sections.