submits that the Ogieks' traditional burial practices of putting the dead in the forest have evolved such that now they do bury their dead. 158. Further, the Applicant asserts that the sacred places in the Mau Forest , caves , hills , specific trees areas within the forest 40 were either destroyed during the ev ictions which took place during the 1980s , or knowledge about them has not been passed on by the e lders to younger members of th e ir co mmunity , as they can no longer access them. The App li can t avers that it is only through unfettered access to the Mau Forest that the Ogieks wi ll be ab le to protect , maintain , and use their sacred sites in accordance with their religious beliefs . The Applicant adds that the Respondent has failed to demarcate and protect t he religious sites of the Ogieks . 159. The Applicant also maintains that though some of the Og ieks have adopted Christianity, this does not extinguish the religious rites they practise in the forest. The Appl icant adds that , under the Forest Act , the Ogieks are required to apply annually and pay for forest licences in order to access their religious sites situated on their ancestral lands , contrary to the provisions of the Charter. 160. During the public hearing, Dr. Liz Alden Wily, the expert witness called by the Applicant asserted that the livelihoods of hunter-gatherer communities are dependent on a social ecology whereby their spiritual life and whole existence depends on the forest and that there is a big misunderstanding about the hunter-gatherer cu lture. She emphasised that for such communities, cultu re and religion are intertwined and thereforecannotbeseparated. According to he r , it is u sua lly pe rc e iv ed that their c ultur e can be easi ly dissolved or disbanded in situations w h ere the hunter -gatherers have been assimi lat ed by modernism. She stated that many forest dwellers like the Ogieks do the hunting and gathering , not just for t he ir livelihood, but 40 See Applicant's Reply to the Respondent's Submissions on Merits pages 22 to 23. 47