Leaves 8(1) April 2006

Newsletter of the
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM
Volume 8, Number 1 --- April 2006

"Reflect upon the inner realities of the universe, the secret wisdoms involved, the enigmas, the inter-relationships, the rules that govern all. For every part of the universe is connected to every other part by ties that are very powerful and admit no imbalance, nor any slackening whatsoever"
-'Abdu'l-Bahá-

FROM THE EDITORS

There has regrettably been a one year gap between the last issue of Leaves and this one. All news from last year’s activities were, however, included in the Annual Report that was circulated in December. There has been a combination of time and technical limitations behind this. In order to improve the quality and regularity of the newsletter in the future we are now looking for additional eager helping hands who can take part or full responsibility for developing this medium of communication among IEF members. Most members have when they joined the organization offered to write for the newsletter but these articles do not come to us by themselves. It requires active solicitation and encouragement. Members attend meetings both for IEF and in their professional capacity which it would be interesting for other members to learn about. We all read books that could be of value to others etc. There are a number of improvements that can be made, not least the frequency of issues! So, anyone out there who likes the written word and can commit to this task of working with the newsletter, contact the IEF secretariat.

-Sylvia-

— A conference on the challenge of transforming our societies through the knowledge of science and the wisdom of faith, for the well-being of future generations —

Society as we know it in Western countries is not sustainable. We are consuming resources and creating pollution in a way that will affect severely our well-being and that of future generations on this planet. One of the most striking examples of this is the way that our societies use energy: consuming oil and coal reserves built up over millions of years in just a couple of centuries, and in the process releasing huge quantities of carbon dioxide causing global warming. In 2006, European countries will have one year's experience with trading CO₂, the Kyoto Protocol is operational, and the United Nations is discussing energy for sustainable development. In parallel, Bahá’í communities around the world are engaged in collective learning processes on how to serve their societies better. The conference will seek to find the meeting points between these two processes through exploring:
the latest scientific knowledge on climate change and its impacts on human well-being;
the wisdom from the world’s Faiths, including the Bahá’í writings, on the value systems needed to face these challenges; and
the practical steps individuals and communities can take to reduce their burden on the future.

Keynote speakers will include Augusto Lopez-Claros, Chief Economist, World Economic Forum, and Arthur Lyon Dahl, President of the International Environment Forum.

Location:
The conference will take place at Balliol College, Oxford University. Oxford is located in the heart of England and can easily be reached by train and coach, as well as from London airports.

Cost:
Details will be announced shortly. Accommodation will be available at the college, and B&Bs can be found in the area. Efforts will be made to find private accommodation, with priority for students.

Registration:
Registration packs will be available after 1 June 2006 on the websites of the IEF (www.bcca.org/ief/conf10reg.htm) and BASED-UK (www.baseduk.org.uk). Alternatively packs can be requested after 1 June from IEFSep2006@yahoo.co.uk. Completed booking forms, including payment, must be received by 15th of August at the latest. Attendance is limited to 90 people, due to the size of the conference facilities. Early registration is therefore advised.

REPORT FROM THE
9TH IEF CONFERENCE

The 9th Conference of the International Environment Forum took the form of a Seminar on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) which was held on 14-15 December 2005 in Orlando, Florida, USA. This seminar was a pre-cursor to the 2005 Bahá'í Conference on Social and Economic Development (SED) from 15-18 December 2005. In support of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-14), this seminar fostered a deeper understanding of the spiritual dimension of sustainable development and explored the challenges and opportunities presented by the Decade. Building upon the 2004 Seminar on ESD, this year's session drew deeply upon the Creative Word and sought to identify the unique contributions that Bahá'u'lláh's teachings offer the field of ESD. Readings provided before the seminar helped prepare participants for the discussions. A beautiful setting and a dynamic, participatory learning environment (using World Café and Open Space Technology), infused with spiritual resonance, helped all the participants to engage in the collective exploration of key questions. A "fishbowl" session allowed a number of experienced practitioners to respond to some critical questions. The goal was to enable participants to articulate the dynamic between the spiritual and material aspects of sustainable development and to apply that understanding in service to humanity. The seminar provided an environment in which representatives of Bahá'í development efforts could share information and experiences, advance their collective understanding of the spiritual and theoretical foundations that characterize a distinctly Bahá'í approach to ESD, and consider how to implement education for sustainable development in their communities. The conference program, readings and photos can be found at: http://www.bcca.org/ief/conf9.htm

ONE COUNTRY FEATURES IEF CONFERENCE

One Country (Volume 17; Issue 3) has a cover story on the '05 Orlando Seminar -- "Religions Ponder new efforts to "educate" for sustainable development"; it also contains a perspective piece on Education for Sustainable Development. The issue can be downloaded at this link: http://www.onecountry.org/e173/e173fnl.pdf

ELECTRONIC (E-MAIL) CONFERENCE

An electronic (e-mail) conference took place from 19 November to 4 December prior to the Conference in Orlando for those who were unable to travel to the conference. It discussed two themes: success stories of environmentally-sustainable development, and the role of education in addressing the next themes of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development: energy, industrial development, air pollution, and climate change. Some of the success stories were shared with the main conference. A more detailed report is found at: http://www.bcca.org/ief/conf9elec.htm

REPORT FROM THE 9TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The 9th Annual General Assembly of the International Environment Forum was held there on 16 December 2005 with 7 members and 6 visitors present. There were 14 ballots cast, 7 in person and 7 by e-mail for the new Governing Board. The following were elected (in alphabetical order with result of officer election): Peter Adriance (USA), Irma Allen (Swaziland), Charles Boyle (Australia), Arthur Dahl (Switzerland - President), Roxanne Lalonde (Swaziland), Gail Lash (USA), Sylvia Karlsson (Finland – General Secretary).

IEF WEB SITE UPGRADED

The IEF web site (http://www.bcca.org/ief) has received a face-lift and upgrade, with the addition of environmental photographs and pictures from our last conference, in keeping with the latest mode in web graphics. These have been kept small and simple to avoid making our pages hard for people with poor Internet connections to download.

The site content has also been expanded with an IEF e-learning centre to make information more readily accessible to viewers. This includes an on-line do-it-yourself course in sustainable development simplified from some of the materials developed for Landegg International University and the Wilmette Institute, and an IEF encyclopedia of sustainable development, or "Sustapedia", with short articles on various environmental and sustainable development topics, including where possible an ethical/spiritual/Baha'i perspective. The idea is to use text that we develop for statements or presentations at conferences but structure it so that it is more accessible for on-line reference. There is a collection of case studies, which people often ask for, and a set of discussion materials for small groups and study circles prepared by Dimity Podger for the last conference. The centre includes a bibliography and links to other useful materials like the new Green TV and the Budapest radio interview with the IEF president. A page with powerpoint presentations for down-load is still embryonic, with one presentation on sustainability from a recent AIESEC conference, and another in French on Sustainable Development in the Mediterranean, but these are very large files. The site is designed to make it easy to incorporate relevant materials written by IEF members, so that it can continue to grow and evolve organically over time. Feedback from members on its usefulness, and suggestions for improvements would be appreciated, and should be sent to the webmaster at dahla @ bluewin.ch.

UPCOMING CSD CYCLE

The fourteenth session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-14), whose mandate is to follow-up implementation of the Rio Conference and the Johannesburg Summit, will meet at UN Headquarters in New York from 1-12 May 2006. As the first year of the second implementation cycle, CSD-14 will review progress in the following areas: Energy for Sustainable Development; Industrial Development; Air pollution/ Atmosphere; and Climate Change. The IEF will have members attending the meeting and prepare statements on these themes.

NEWS FROM MEMBERS' ACTIVITIES

Radio interview with IEF President in connection with his visit to Budapest and the World Science Forum in November 2006. Arthur Dahl was interviewed on radio for 50 minutes. This is the link to the interview:
http://www.pararadio.hu/archivum/musorok/ARTHUR_Report.mp3

New IEF member Malcolm Lake is engaged in the International Tree Foundation Northern Ireland. He sent Leaves this description of their activities.

The Northern Ireland Branch of the International Tree Foundation (ITF), (originating in the early 1920s in Africa as ‘The Men of the Trees’) was formed in 1987. Its Founder in Africa, Richard St Barbe Baker, was a forester, employed by the colonial government in Kenya. He ‘invented’ social forestry, by involving local people in ‘planting and protecting trees’. ‘Tree education’ is a major part of ITF’s objectives. From the beginning, it was resolved to be involved with (mainly primary) schools, to educate children on the ‘functions and benefits’ of trees and to plant on their invariably bare sites.The same year, the animated film, ‘The man who planted trees’ was released. From the start, the Branch has used a video of this film and obtained the permission of CBC to use it, in its activities. A work sheet has been developed, depicting in cartoon form trees’ functions and benefits. This work sheet is used in a ‘participative learning exercise’, with an ITF member stimulating the participation and explaining and recording the 12 functions and benefits on the blackboard. The visit also involves tree planting. Native whips—seedling trees about a metre tall and easily-handled by small children—are used. They would typically be planted in groups, so that they grow together in close-association and (along with advice from ITF) protect each-other from mowers and strimmers. For more information about ITF and its activities contact Malcolm Lake, Malcolm.Lake9 @ gmail.com.

REPORTS

IEF member Owrang Kashef provides Leaves readers with the link to the brochure on the recently released 2nd UN World Water Development Report.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001431/143120E.pdf

MISSING MEMBERS

The email address of the following members are no longer functional. If you know any of them please ask them to contact the IEF Secretariat with their new address.

Marion Nowicki
Abbas Ali Emualim
Kate Lindsay
Lisa Brown
Tomas Linsel
Heather Megan Fuller

UPDATE YOUR ADDRESS

Please send information to the secretariat on changes of address etc. We are "losing" members whose email starts bouncing because they have not informed us of their new address.

IEF SECRETARIAT
International Environment Forum<
c/o
Dr. Arthur L. Dahl
12B Chemin de Maisonneuve
CH-1219 Chatelaine, Geneva
Switzerland
Email: ief@bcca.org
goes to the General Secretary Sylvia Karlsson
website: www.bcca.org/ief

Updated 13 April 2006