Leaves 21(11) - November 2019

 LEAVES

Newsletter of the
 INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM
 Volume 21, Number 11 --- 15 November 2019

       
                                   

                                                   

 

Website: iefworld.org
Article submission: newsletter@iefworld.org Deadline next issue 10 December 2019
Secretariat Email: ief@iefworld.org Christine Muller, General Secretary
Postal address: 12B Chemin de Maisonneuve, CH-1219 Chatelaine, Geneva, Switzerland

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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.

 

Environment and Sustainability in Malta


IEF President Arthur Dahl was invited by the Baha’i community of the Mediterranean island country of Malta from 14-19 October 2019 to contribute to local discourses on the environment, climate change, and sustainability. On his arrival in Malta he had his first interview by a television journalist even before leaving the airport with a full page article in The Independent, a national newspaper, being published on the same day.

On Wednesday, he met with the Rector and several professors at the University of Malta, including the Malta Ambassador for Oceans, and gave a lecture on "Environmental and Sustainability Challenges for Small Islands" with a particular focus on climate change, including progress in developing indicators of sustainability. Two professors invited him to contribute texts to a mixed media, large format book about Malta that they would be publishing later in 2019.

On Thursday, he gave a public lecture at the Institute of Applied Science, Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology (MCAST), again considering the environmental and sustainability challenges of islands and what individuals could do to respond. About 50 people were in attendance including government experts, NGO representatives, and students.

Friday started with a 20-minute television interview on the environment followed by an interview in Maltese with a local Baha’i on the Bahá'í Faith. Arthur then had a long meeting with the editor of a national Sunday paper in preparation for a future article. In the evening, he spoke at a Baha’i-organized event on "The Importance of Youth in Society Today" with about 30 in attendance. Arthur Dahl described the pressures on youth from the consumer society, their concerns for climate justice behind marches around the world, and the responses to those concerns in the Baha’i approach to social transformation. This was followed by a reception.

Then on Saturday, the Malta Foundation for the Well-being of Society (organized by the former President of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca) held its 4th National Conference on Wellbeing. Arthur was invited to give the keynote speech on "The Sustainable Development Goals as Guides for Practical Action", which was the theme of the day’s discussions on social progress, sustainable economic development, and environment and climate change. Many representatives of civil society and organizations of public welfare participated, from children and women’s groups to farmers, business people, and educators. Faced with challenges that rapid economic growth and climate change represent on small islands, there was wide recognition of the need to work together in unity across all stakeholders. The following is a summary of Arthur’s presentation.

In 2015, a summit of world leaders at the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an ambitious effort to address the many interrelated problems facing the world, from poverty and gender prejudice to inequality, climate change, and peace and security. Governments around the world are trying to meet these goals, but they will not succeed without the commitment and cooperation of all of us. The SDGs have specific targets to be met, and even indicators to measure progress towards these targets. These can be relevant to improving our own communities and even serve as guides to practical action for each of us in our daily lives.

The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs are motivated by justice “to leave no one behind”. There are goals that place humans at the centre, where environmental challenges represent threats to human health and well-being, and where environmental solutions can reinforce human progress. There are also goals for environmental resources, processes and boundaries defining planetary health on which human well-being and development depend, as well as goals about transitioning to a green economy that builds rather than undermines planetary sustainability.

The United Nations seems far removed from actions in our local communities, yet the 2030 Agenda is a call for justice addressed to everyone. The UN Secretary-General's report to the 2015 Summit said: "Young people will be the torch bearers... the first truly globalized, interconnected, and highly mobilized civil society, ready and able to serve as a participant, joint steward, and powerful engine of change and transformation." Try looking at the global goals and aspirations as addressed to each of us and our local communities. What can we do to implement them at our own level? For example, we can contribute to local efforts that eliminate poverty in our community, prefer renewable energy sources, and see our work and that of others as a service to the community. We can reduce our wastes through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. We can educate ourselves, our family, and our community about sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, climate change, human rights, gender equality, peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity. Setting positive goals can be very motivating. Such unity of purpose, then, can help to build unity in the whole community.


 

"Greta Thunberg” Coral Nursery for Climate Change Adaptation
Created in Fiji - Youth can Move the World

Report by IEF Member Austin Bowden-Kerby


Coral reefs and Arctic ecosystems are the most sensitive of all systems to global warming, and they are both in the process of collapsing due to climate change. Coral reefs have a great diversity of organisms that are now in danger of being lost.

I have been involved in coral restoration for over 30 years now. After many years of struggling to get coral gardening recognized as a valid tool for helping coral reefs survive into the future, with the recent mass bleaching of coral reefs due to warming seas, dozens of new projects have popped up all over the world.

Because many of these new efforts are being carried out by non-scientists, and with no training, I have developed a course to upgrade the knowledge and skills of these coral gardeners. Last May, I carried out the first training for thirty people from throughout Fiji, with amazing results, captured on this video clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgQ9yyZImjw Plantation Island Resort provided low cost and free accommodation, meals, boats, venues etc. for the workshop.

Many who heard of the workshop could not afford to come, including a group of youth from an NGO, “Coral Gardeners” on Moorea, French Polynesia. In August the World Surf League provided my airfare to Moorea, to assist this group of some 30 young people, who on their own were creating coral nurseries and trying to save the reefs. The youth were amazing and positive, and eager to learn more about identifying and propagating corals that are more resistant to bleaching - the “super corals”. This trip changed my perception and helped me realize that youth can indeed move the world. These amazing videos were produced from this one week visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etJDBDOTf_c&list=PLQ3-3sUOFLfGbi3qKoDqb… and https://www.facebook.com/coralgardeners/videos/894222467622414/

On my return to Fiji, I resolved to do what I can to help create and support a youth movement to prevent the collapse of coral reefs due to climate change. Shortly after returning, I was contacted by a youth group from nearby Naidiri Village, who told me that they had set up a no-fishing area and a coral nursery. I made a visit to the site, and saw that they too were doing amazing things, and with almost no support and guidance from outside, learning from the internet. I have since helped these youth create two new coral nurseries and begin outplanting bleaching-resistant corals into their no-fishing Tabu area.

In late September, I conducted our first international training - a twelve-day “Coral Gardening for Climate Change Adaptation” workshop, for 25 young trainees from nine nations, including twelve indigenous people from Papua New Guinea, Samoa, New Caledonia, and Fiji. During the workshop, we created a large coral nursery that we named the "Greta Thunberg Coral Nursery". The nursery is located on Nuku Reef in the Mamanuca Islands, Fiji, where last February through April, the reef became severely bleached. The corals planted in Greta’s nursery are survivors of the bleaching, and have proven themselves better adapted than those which perished. Three participants, from New Caledonia and Samoa, were, like me, from the Baha’i community. These participants are excited about incorporating what they learned into their ongoing Junior Youth programs, as a service to the wider community.

The next workshops at Plantation Island Resort, are scheduled for late February and early September, and are open to all. We will continue to develop the Greta Thunberg nursery with each workshop group. On hearing of these activities in the Fiji news, FAO has now contracted me to conduct a two week workshop in Samoa November 3rd-16th.

The strategy I have developed to save the coral reefs is quite simple - it focuses on the corals most threatened by climate change - namely, the Acropora corals. The goal is to create bleaching resistant patches of these corals on the reef. We select for bleaching resistance by collecting fragments of corals from hot pockets on the reef: tide pools, reef flats, and shallow closed lagoons. These resistant corals are then propagated within coral nurseries for later trimming and out-planting back to the reef. The heat resistance will in theory spread, as the corals share their resistant algae with incoming juvenile corals, and as they spawn and create their own larvae, which then spread within the system.

I am now a grandfather and my focus is turning toward the children and youth, and trying to get them involved with the corals. From the youth of Moorea and Fiji, to the children of New Caledonia and Samoa - planting corals and seeing them grow and thrive provides a ray of light in these dark times - a new hope for the future.

The next youth coral workshop is scheduled for 20-27 November on Christmas Island, Kiribati, with my airfares and project expenses being raised online here: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-cor…

For IEF members and friends in the London UK area, Austin will be giving a public talk on Monday the 16th December, and in Bristol on Tuesday 17th December. For details please write abowdenkerby@gmail.com

 

“The Story of Stuff - a Bahá’í-inspired Program for Youth”
at the Portuguese Bahá’í Summer School, July 2019

Report by IEF member Wandra Harmsen


Every summer the Portuguese Bahá’í community holds its annual summer school in the town of Santarém, which sits atop a ridge with a beautiful view of the Tagus (Tejo) River in Ribatejo Province. This town has the distinction of having been home to Portuguese kings during the Middle Ages. For five days in July, a few hundred Bahá’ís and their friends from around the world came together to study, worship, and strengthen ties of friendship. This year at the summer school, the Portuguese National Schools Committee embraced a request to study The Story of Stuff - a Baha'i-inspired Program for Youth with approximately twenty junior youth (11-15 years of age).

The planning team, led by middle school science teacher José Pedro Jorge, decided to have a different pair of teachers teach each session. Each teaching team consisted of an adult paired with a youth helper. Lessons were given to the lead teachers, and student materials were translated a few weeks before the school began. Once at the school, teachers and youth helpers met prior to classes to finalize teaching plans.

A decision was also made that it was not enough to share this course only with junior youth. We realized that in order for there to be greater understanding of what the junior youth were studying, the adults also needed to take part. In this way, there could be many conversations about consumer culture among families and in the general Bahá’í community. Therefore, one of the adult class sessions was dedicated to viewing the 20 minute video The Story of Stuff. Afterward, everyone was divided into three groups with each group studying one of the lessons from the course. At the end, each group presented an overview of what they studied and shared what they had learned about that topic as well as any implications.

Although The Story of Stuff - a Baha'i-inspired Program for Youth course was designed for six classes -- not four or five consecutive days at a hotel, we found that it worked quite well with the learnings regarding consumerism and sustainability being shared throughout the school.

As a result, the junior youth and youth made a video about what they learned and presented it as their contribution to Arts and Talents Night. In the video, young people were pressured to keep purchasing products (in this case, a water bottle).

Not only did the junior youth, youth, and adults enjoy this study, but they also expressed interest in teaching it in their local communities.

I offer this experience as a possible example of how to integrate The Story of Stuff--A Baha'i-inspired Program for Youth and its timely themes of materialism/consumerism, moderation, and justice, into our communities via summer schools and other Bahá’í conferences that occur over a few days. Learning in a community setting has many advantages and generates greater understanding among generations. In the end, this will greatly enhance our community building efforts. After all, the better informed we are, the better equipped we will be to make lasting changes that will impact our lives, our communities, and ultimately the entire planet.

 

Conference on the UN 2030 Agenda in Belgrade


The European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD), established by the United Nations University for Peace, organized its fifteenth annual international conference in Belgrade, Serbia, on 25 October 2019 on the theme “The UN Agenda 2030: To Transform the World”. The International Environment Forum, through its President, Arthur Dahl, has collaborated with the ECPD for a decade, and this year he prepared the concept note for the conference, provided an opening keynote, and prepared the conference report. The theme built on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted at a General Assembly summit in 2015, which mapped out the fundamental transformations required by 2030 to address the many interrelated problems that the world is facing. The conference assembled many partners both from the region and around the world, across many fields and the political, religious, academic and development domains. It aimed to achieve a deeper and wider understanding of the next essential directions to transform the region in order to build a more sustainable future as defined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The opening session reflected a balance of realistic appraisals of the present situation in the world, while acknowledging glimmers of hope and optimism in constructive efforts to respond.

The President of the EDPC Council, Dr. Federico Mayor, former Director-General of UNESCO, opened the conference by video. He briefly reviewed past moments in the last hundred years when nations came together in hope for the future, and noted that the adoption of the UN Agenda 2030 in 2015 was again a time when we had hope that respect for human rights, social objectives for the economy, and responding to climate change would again have priority. Unfortunately the rising rejection of multilateralism is clouding these prospects. “We the Peoples...” of the UN Charter need all nations to address our common destiny together. With modern science and technology, we know what is happening on our planet and what lies ahead. The youth see this and are calling for action. If we postpone action, we shall lack in our intergenerational duty, which will be a great mistake. We hold the reins of a unified future in our hands, and should work on guidelines for reinventing the future.

The next speaker was Dr. Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Minister in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, who highlighted the active role of Serbia in implementing the UN Agenda 2030, which presented its first Voluntary National Review to the UN High Level Political Forum in 2019. Most recently it has promoted a vision of Sustainable Serbia for youth and children, and is encouraging action at the municipal level. He was followed by Professor Dr. Francisco Rojas Aravena, Rector of the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica, who recalled that humanity is entitled to peace, but we see rising atomic threats, climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental damage, terrorism and migration. Some countries will disappear. Multilateralism is weakening, the geopolitical view is changing with power relationships involving many actors beyond governments. There are fewer wars but more violence and insecurity. No actor or superpower can resolve the issues of the global agenda on its own. Capitalism has globalized, but elections and governance are still national, leading to mistrust in leaders and political institutions. Only cooperation makes it possible to confront the transnational agenda and provide governance to globalization. The world economy is declining, and there are commercial wars, with greater global uncertainty. Trust decreases and fear increases. We need to take steps towards global decisions for all nations, but no viable proposal has emerged to address these transformations of the international system or to democratize the global power structure. Agenda 2030 provides the main framework to solve our problems. Without peace, there is no development. We need new concept maps, knowledge and cooperation to overcome fragmentation, as well as a dialogue for multilateralism, more accountability, and education for peace.

Other opening keynotes were from Dr. Ouidad Bouchamaoui of Tunisia, Vice-president of the ECPD Council and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who underlined the critical challenges to all the world from conflicts and wars everywhere. She said we must cope with the consequences including migration with all its risks and suffering. There is a lack of vision in our leaders. We need to be optimistic and work together for one future for all of us. If we are to inspire future generations, who are our last hope, we need to bring together our actions and reflections to be more practical. The solutions are there, and if we combine all our efforts we can build a better future.

She was followed by Dr. Erhard Busek, former Vice-Chancellor of Austria and President of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, who raised many questions about the present situation. We are behind the reality of climate change and the environmental crisis, leaving a gap. Research has warned us for many years, but what has happened? Europe is no closer to a common Europe, with Brexit and the refusal of enlargement despite the efforts of North Macedonia. There are bigger problems in the Middle East, with 3.5 million refugees in Turkey, while Europe is challenged when only 250 migrants try to cross the Mediterranean. We are not transforming the world. Only 20 countries qualify as true democracies, and the number is shrinking. What are the real results of all our meetings? Greta Thunberg has lead the youth, but will something happen? We need integrated solutions addressing many issues together, not going in different directions. We are raising borders, not putting them down. Politics is created out of conflicts, and the UN has become weaker, with consistent failure to reform the Security Council. We have new media, but have they helped us or spread hate speech? We need a reality check, as everything is going faster and time is running out.

In his keynote, Arthur Dahl, who was named Visiting Professor at ECPD, asked where are we now with Agenda 2030? We are behind in reaching the goals by 2030. We have been warned for decades that continuing our present trajectory beyond planetary limits could bring about a major crisis in this century. Many governments, organizations and individuals are trying to implement Agenda 2030, but this would be ambitious even if everyone was cooperating. There is an “elephant in the room” in the form of the many forces working against the SDGs and multilateralism. Climate change has been driven by the fossil fuel industry, which knew already in 1965 the damage that its greenhouse gas emissions would do to the environment. They denied the science, spent billions blocking action on climate change, and plan for major increases in production in the decade ahead. It is no wonder that youth are striking and marching in the streets. For global sustainability we need global governance, and a recent project with two colleagues has prepared proposals for Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century to reform the United Nations. Humanity is gripped by a crisis of identity and needs to find a common human purpose in its unity in diversity. The pathway to sustainability will be one of empowerment, collaboration, learning and action revealing the human capacities for justice, reciprocity and happiness.

The conference continued with sessions on the economy, human resources development, the environment and climate change, and institutions, finance and cooperation as addressed in the 2030 Agenda.

The economic challenges are particularly acute. Everyone wants development, first to rise out of poverty and then to achieve a better life. Yet our economic and political systems focus on the short term, aiming to achieve immediate profits or to satisfy voters and win the next election. In doing this, it is too easy to go into debt, borrowing to keep growing, or living off capital rather than relying only on the interest. But at some point, debts have to be repaid, and once the capital is gone, so is the potential for interest. The result is bankruptcy and poverty. What is true in finance, is equally true for natural resource capital and social capital. Sustainable development means to maintain the productivity and wealth of our society within the limits of our resources into the distant future. No past civilization has done this successfully; all reached environmental or social limits and collapsed.

Agenda 2030 is ambitious, but it really defines what a successful society should achieve in the 21st century, and with modern technology this is possible. However, while the present economic system has generated great wealth, it has concentrated it at the top, leaving half the world population behind. What is lacking is the political will for change, linked to the powerful vested interests in the present economic and political systems that resist change. Despite the promise in this agenda, many countries seem to be sliding backwards if not disintegrating. The resulting stress is fragmenting societies everywhere. Now, with the rapid evolution of science and technology, humanity has run up against planetary limits from which there is no escape, and we have little time left to change course before catastrophic events from climate change and famine to mass migrations and wanton corruption, and the resulting political instability, become unbearable. A number of presentations addressed this issue.

For example, Dr. Farhang Tahzib, Director of Public Health, West Sussex Primary Care Trust, UK, and a Baha’i, considered the core values needed for delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals. There are forces of disintegration and integration at work in the world today, requiring new values and ethics. Economic self-interest fails to motivate stakeholders to incorporate the social and environmental dimensions in their planning. We need to consider the ethical dimensions for delivery of the SDGs. Can we strive for prosperity while damaging the planet and harming people? Is it morally justified to change the climate with devastating consequences? There is no Plan B, because there is no planet B. What is our understanding of justice when most wealth goes to 1% of the population? Equity means social justice or fairness; it is an ethical concept, grounded in principles of distributive justice. Equity in health can be defined as the absence of socially unjust or unfair health disparities. Social injustice is still killing on a grand scale. Solidarity is an active concept, being willing to act on behalf of other persons derived from recognition of similarity with them, what people share in common and not what sets them apart. We need more solidarity and a global health ethic. Isolated national policies are no longer enough when the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.

Papers on the environment looked at the transformative change required by the climate crisis as an example of what is now required for many other sustainability targets. The climate is changing much faster than scientists had predicted, bringing the world close to tipping points where positive feedbacks could make it impossible to go backwards. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has now determined that we must limit global warming to 1.5°C to have a chance of avoiding irreversible and dangerous climate change. We have to do everything, and we have to do it immediately. This is not impossible, since we have the necessary technologies, but it will require unprecedented rates of transformation as net greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to zero by mid-century. Even if these transformations are made immediately, we shall probably need to use expensive carbon capture and storage and unproven carbon dioxide removal technologies to come back down to a safe level by 2100. Various presentations explored the implications of climate change and other environmental issues, both globally and in the region.

The discussion raised a number of interesting and relevant issues. We tend to look at the symptoms and do not diagnose the fundamental diseases. We are experiencing processes of disintegration and integration, the latter uniting the world in implementing the SDGs. We hope that public opinion will come on board, but that will require metaphors, stories and the arts to communicate at another more emotional level. The difficulty in dealing with approaching danger is to recognize that we are responsible, but that may only occur when we are in imminent danger, by which time it may be (almost?) too late. We have managed to avoid a nuclear holocaust for 80 years, by somehow drawing back at the last minute. How can we last for another 80 years? The problems we are facing are completely beyond our capacity to solve, unless we act collectively with a spirit of reconciliation and cooperation. There is a challenge in how to globalize the things we want to globalize without an effective global governance. The UN could be reformed, but it will require significant funding.

No country in the world is on track to achieving all the SDGs by 2030. Many trends are still in the wrong direction, and for some such as eliminating hunger we are falling back after a period of improvement. If we want to transform the world, we must raise the level of ambition. Everyone must be involved in the effort that is necessary, requiring widespread public information about the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs through educational programmes in the schools and places of worship, in the media and in political discourses. The effort should be like going on a war footing, with all efforts focussed on the objectives. The challenge is too important to become the subject of partisan political wrangling. Everyone should unite against the common enemy, our own unsustainability. We have waited too long, and ignored too many warnings, to delay action any longer.

Youth Forum

The ECPD Conference was followed by the 7th Global ECPD Youth Forum, which assembled 86 participants from 30 countries at the City Hall in Belgrade, Serbia, for a rich exchange on issues of particular concern to youth. The theme of “Youth Power for the Common Future: Youth Mobilization to Redress Present World Trends” used the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for finding solutions to unsustainable world trends and existential risks like the climate crisis. After a day and a half of exchanges and intense discussions, the participants left with a new motivation to work positively for the fundamental transformation in society called for in the UN Agenda 2030 and required to respond to the pressing global risks threatening their future.

As chair of the Youth Forum, Arthur Dahl emphasized the importance of unity in diversity as a foundational value, quoting from the international governing body of the Bahá’í Faith:

“Consider how radically different... a fragmented conception of human identity is from the one that follows from a recognition of the oneness of humanity. In this perspective, the diversity that characterizes the human family, far from contradicting its oneness, endows it with richness. Unity... contains the essential concept of diversity, distinguishing it from uniformity. It is through love for all people, and by subordinating lesser loyalties to the best interests of humankind, that the unity of the world can be realized and the infinite expressions of human diversity find their highest fulfilment.” He concluded that “the pathway to sustainability will be one of empowerment, collaboration and continual processes of questioning, learning and action in all regions of the world.... As the sweeping tides of consumerism, unfettered consumption, extreme poverty and marginalization recede, they will reveal the human capacities for justice, reciprocity and happiness.”

The first session was to help the youth get inspired by the experience and knowledge of several speakers. It asked what world the youth wanted to build? The Sustainable Development Goals provide an overarching framework, with a strategic goal to leave no one behind. But there is often no discussion of fundamental values and motivation. The preceding ECPD Conference had often reflected pessimism about the future, as the present generation has largely failed for lack of values, and cannot give advice. Youth are the last hope in the growing culture of scepticism and greed, and need to mobilize for the SDGs, as the only ones who can say where we are going. The example of putting men on the moon showed what could be done with concentrated effort. Youth need creativity as they look for the adjacent possible beyond the usual. The rest of first day was devoted to presentations mostly by young people on a variety of topics of special interest to youth and largely moderated by youth.

The second day was an open discussion moderated by the Chair of the Youth Forum, Arthur Dahl. He invited all the participants to suggest the topics they wanted to discuss. These were combined into six common themes, and everyone was invited to join small group discussions on the themes that most interested them. A first round discussed a Green Economy, Ecosystems and Environmental Management, and Lifestyles, while the second round explored Racism and Migration, Education, and Dialogue processes and inspiration to change.

The diversity of participants from many cultures and countries and different academic and practical perspectives was enriching for everyone. Each group summarized their reflections on a large piece of paper and jointly presented their results to everyone present. Participation was so active that the session lasted much longer than planned. Each one went away at the end of the Youth Forum with a wider and deeper understanding of the challenges facing the world and the power of youth to address them.

 

Interfaith Rainforest Initiative posts Baha'i Tool Kit
and other valuable new resources


The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative recently posted valuable resources which are very helpful in the efforts to protect rainforests.

The first category consists of three “Issue Primers” for religious leaders and faith communities:

Tropical Forests - a Resource under Threat

Tropical Forests and Climate Change

Indigenous Peoples – Guardians of the Forests

The second category consists of fact sheets on the state of the forests in Brazil, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Peru, which together contain 70% of the world’s remaining tropical forests.

The third category consists of Tool Kits that provide spiritual reflections, sample prayers and liturgies, talking points and a lesson plan on forests for different faiths.

This is the direct link to the Baha'i Tool Kit. The other tool kits are from the following perspectives: Buddhism, Catholic, Evangelical, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Protestant.

GreenFaith played a large role in gathering these materials from the different religious communities.

Let's hope that people of faith around the world will be motivated by these materials to take strong action to protect the rainforests!

Source: https://faithsforforests.com/ Click on #2 LEARN


Updated 15 November 2019