Leaves 25 (2) - February 2023

Newsletter of the
 INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM
 Volume 25, Number 2 --- 15 February 2023

 

Website: iefworld.org
Article submission: newsletter@iefworld.org Deadline next issue 10 March 2023
Secretariat Email: ief@iefworld.org Christine Muller General Secretary
Postal address: 12B Chemin de Maisonneuve, CH-1219 Chatelaine, Geneva, Switzerland
Download the pdf version

From the Editor, Request for information for upcoming newsletters

This newsletter is an opportunity for IEF members to share their experiences, activities, and  initiatives that are taking place at the community level on environment, climate change  and sustainability. All members are welcome to contribute information about related  activities, upcoming conferences, news from like-minded organizations, recommended  websites, book reviews, etc. Please send information to newsletter@iefworld.org.

Please share the Leaves newsletter and IEF membership  information with family, friends and associates, and encourage interested persons to consider  becoming a member of the IEF.

IEF Webinars

By IEF Webinar Coordinator Khela Baskett

18th IEF Webinar
Sunday, March 5th, 2023

10am PST California
1pm EST New York
6pm GMT
7pm CET Central Europe

"Book Club" Style Webinar on "The Teachings of Grass" 

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/TeachingsOfGrass

Description:
We'll be using the "Book Club" format for our webinar again this month, which is focused on member participation, discussion, and principals we can implement in our lives to live in harmony with our natural world.  We'll listen to Robin Kimmerer read the chapter "Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass" from her book "Braiding Sweetgrass." This chapter discusses our assumptions about how nature works, and interdependence among species.  You do not need to read ahead, as we will listen to the audiobook chapter together, but for your reference, here's the book.

Last month’s "Book Club" Webinar: Council of Pecans, also from Braiding Sweetgrass, was a great success. The participants all enjoyed a very lively discussion. In order to encourage maximum participation and discussion, "Book Club" Webinars are not recorded. 

Recording of the 16th IEF Webinar is available

The talk by Maja Groff, International lawyer, on the International Adoption of a Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r43tnAQhvoM

Members Corner

The IEF warmly welcomes the following new members and associates:

Study of One Planet, One Habitation: A Baha’i Perspective on Recasting Humanity's Relationship with the Natural World
Three IEF groups are currently in the process of studying this statement by the Baha’i International Community together, all benefitting from the facilitation of IEF President Arthur Dahl. One group is the initiative of the IEF Youth Task Force with participants from the Netherlands to Costa Rica. The other two groups are planned so that participants in different time zones can attend. It is truly amazing how we can get together from all over globe and learn from the perspectives from different cultures. Participants come from all over the world such as from Australia, China, Colombia, France, Italy, Malawi, Kiribati, Ukraine, USA, and Switzerland.

Of course, everyone can read the statement for themselves. The statement is available for download in a beautiful PDF version as well as in a text version that is more suitable for study. It is now also available in Romanian, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

Association for Baha’i Studies Agriculture Group Webinars

Sunday, February 26 at 1:00pm EST / 19:00 CET
Unlocking the Potential of the Youth for Agricultural Transformation in Kenya  
with speaker Holiance Odhiambo

Rural youth are the future of food security. Yet around the world, few young people see a future for themselves in agriculture or rural areas. (fao.org) Agriculture contributes significantly to Kenya’s annual Gross Domestic Product despite being primarily characterized by small-scale subsistence farming. It, therefore, holds potential for growth and transformation and employment and livelihood opportunities for many unemployed young Kenyans. This presentation will review various strategies employed in Kenya that seek to address challenges that hinder youth from participating effectively in agriculture and its value chains. In the end, the presentation will highlight some of the impacts of the policies and strategies.

About Holiance Odhiambo
I have served in the Office of External Affairs of the Baha’is of Kenya as a coordinator since 2019. The office explores the discourse themes on the environment and climate change; peace and national cohesion; sustainable development; and gender equality. Previously, I worked for the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), one of the CGIAR centres that conduct research on agroforestry and livelihoods. It is while promoting sustainable land husbandry that I developed a keener interest in smallholder farming. I hold a Bachelor of Environmental Science degree from Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya. I am also a farmer (phone call farmer). Together with my family, we cultivate crops and raise livestock in Lambwe valley for home consumption, often selling surplus.

Sign up here to receive the announcement with more information and with a link.

Agriculture and the International Order
The Association for Baha’i Studies Agriculture Group offered a webinar on Agriculture and the International Order with Daniel Perell from the Baha’i International Community (and IEF member) on January 29.
You can listen to the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ3-zpaUCwk

Global Futures Forum March 20 – 22, 2023

Source: Coalition for the UN We Need C4UN: https://c4unwn.org/global-futures-forum/

The United Nations Summit of the Future (SOTF) is proposed for 22-23 September 2024 in New York to advance ideas for governance arrangements in the areas of international concern. In order to ensure that diverse civil society perspectives are engaged in the preparatory process of the 2024 Summit of the Future, a civil society-led Global Futures Forum (GFF) is proposed for 20-21 March 2023 in New York, followed by a Missions Engagement Day on 22 March. The forum will comprise two days of discussions and action in a hybrid format to ensure global reach, preceded by multiple consultation tracks, immediately followed by a “Civil Society-UN Missions Engagement Day.”

Purpose

1. Explore the design, feasibility, and potential impact of wide-ranging proposals, from the unique vantage point of civil society, as a contribution to the Summit of the Future’s preparations.
2. Raise awareness, build ownership, and mobilize energy around the promise of the Summit of the Future to deliver on an ambitious set of outcomes that reinforce and help to accelerate the achievement of a reformed UN system and Agenda 2030. Model true partnership and creativity worldwide among civil society to ensure active and equal participation across age groups, geographic representation, professional disciplines, and other forms of global diversity.

Go here for more information: https://c4unwn.org/global-futures-forum/
 

The site of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Santiago, Chile, was recently host to a gathering that marked a significant milestone in a conservation project aimed at safeguarding the diverse ecosystems in the Andes Mountains.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Mountain Project, which was initiated six years ago, has engaged the public and private sectors to protect the natural environment and cultural heritage of the Santiago Metropolitan and Valparaíso regions, including in Peñalolén, where the temple is situated.

Carolina Leitao Alvarez, the mayor of Peñalolén, expressed her appreciation for the role the temple has played in promoting environmental stewardship in the region since its inauguration. “These grounds have a special meaning because… the efforts [of the Bahá’í community] to restore these foothills has been very important,” she said.

Maximiliano Cox Larrain, a representative of the GEF project, spoke about the steps taken to reforest and conserve the flora and fauna and on the temple site, saying: “By using native plants, minimizing visual obstructions, and engaging in ecological restoration, the design and landscaping of the gardens create a tranquil space in which the city finds silence, and visitors can connect with nature. This connection inspires meaningful conversations and invites you to approach the temple in a state of meditation and reflection.”

Other attendees included the Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Environment, as well as representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme, the GEF Mountain Project, and civil society organizations.

Veronica Oré, the director of the House of Worship, explained in her remarks that beyond conservation efforts on the site, the Bahá’í community has sought to further support the project by creating spaces for conversations that explore a holistic vision of progress grounded in spiritual principles such as the oneness of humanity.

“The planet, its peoples, and its creatures have suffered greatly from a materialistic mindset that views the individual as purely economic and a self-interested unit, competing with others to accumulate an ever-increasing share of the world’s material resources,” she said.

Mrs. Oré explained that by viewing progress through the lens of the oneness of humanity, one can see with greater clarity that true prosperity must include the flourishing of all people and the planet that we all share. This suggests that material progress alone is not enough, and that true progress must also include the spiritual and moral development of individuals and society.

Reflecting on the event, Luis Sandoval, a member of Chile’s Bahá’í Office of External Affairs, says that the House of Worship has played an important part in inspiring this vision, “catalyzing people’s reorientation toward their spiritual nature.”

The Bahá’í temple, says Mr. Sandoval, “has acted as a point of attraction for those seeking to work for the renewal of society.”

SOURCE: https://news.bahai.org/story/1638/

The single greatest threat to our very existence is climate change. Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world 1. Urgent action is required to deal with increasing risks of heatwaves becoming a new normal, forest wildfire, droughts and floods that are already exceeding plants and animals’ tolerance thresholds, driving mass mortalities in species such as trees and corals. These weather extremes are occurring simultaneously, causing cascading impacts that are increasingly difficult to manage. They have exposed billions of living things to acute food and water insecurity, especially in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central and South America.

It is past time to recognize that climate action is not a mere matter of State discretion; it is an exacting requirement under international law. Now is a critical window in which humanity has a last chance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change. Future generations will look back at what present generations did, or failed to do, to rise to this challenge.

The devastating impacts of climate change can no longer be ignored. Science confirms that human caused climate change is unequivocal. Past and present anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are responsible for the impacts we now face, and the loss and damage we now suffer.

Vanuatu has been ranked the world’s most disaster-prone country for both climate related and geological hazards in an annual World-Risk-Report published by the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). Thus, Vanuatu itself has experienced environmental extinction where a number of endemic species of plants and animals are now gone, as well as marine species.

Plants and animals are sensitive beings that can be influenced by the slow onset change of our climate. It changes the way species and populations interact with the environment and one another. These impacts can be felt throughout an entire ecosystem 2.

The Vanuatu government and NGOs are working together in introducing an Ecosystem-based adaptation approach. This is a strategy for adapting to climate change that harnesses nature-based solutions and ecosystem services. For instance, protecting coastal habitats like mangroves provides natural flood defences; reforestation can hold back desertification and recharge groundwater supplies in times of drought; and water bodies like rivers and lakes provide natural drainage to reduce flooding.

Community Conservation Areas in some islands in Vanuatu earn carbon credits to support communities and keep forests standing as a way for carbon sequestration to fight against climate change.

Vanuatu is building a coalition of States seeking a non-binding Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to gain clarity on how existing International Laws can be applied to strengthen action on climate change, protect people and the environment and save the Paris Agreement.

An advisory opinion of the ICJ will draw a clear line between what actions can be negotiated and what is already required by international law. An advisory opinion from the ICJ will foster ambition in the pledges made by States, which is crucial for the success of the process set in motion by the Paris Agreement and will send a clear signal to present and future generations that no stone is being left unturned in this critical decade to address the climate impacts on human rights, justice and inter-generational equity and save our environment.

1 Climate change: a threat to human wellbeing and health of the planet. Taking action now can secure our future — IPCC

2 Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystems | US EPA

See also Climate crisis to International Court of Justice