World's religions to sign up in the fight for the planet
Copyright 2000, Agence France Presse
November 13, 2000
Nepal is to host a landmark conservation conference from Tuesday aiming to enlist the world's major religions in the battle to save the environment.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) representing 11 major faiths will bring together more than 500 delegates for the four-day conference here.
The aim is "to create new, significant and environmentally important projects addressing a wide range of issues from climate change to marine conservation, from sustainable forest management to environmental advocacy," a WWF press release said.
Among the delegates from 33 countries will be Britain's Prince Philip, who will attend the conference to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koairala on Tuesday.
WWF International Federation president Ruub Lubbers and WWF director general Claude Martin arrived here Saturday for the event entitled "The Journey to Kathmandu: Sacred Gifts for a living Planet."
"The WWF and the ARC will unveil 26 sacred gifts for a living planet in the first ever partnership of its kind linking the world's major religions," said WWF official Liz Foley.
Such initiatives will include restoring scared forests in India, and reinstating a Buddhist hunting ban to help protect Mongolia's endangered snow leopard.
The China Taoist Association, the umbrella organisation for 40 million Taoists in China, is meanwhile calling on its members to stop using endangered wildlife in traditional medicines.
"Through these gifts, we're reaching out to huge new constituencies to the four to five billion people that these faiths represent to work with them for the conservation of our living world," Claude Martin said.
"Sacred gifts are catalysts for action.They are conservation templates for religious followers around the world -- a community that has influence over five percent of the planet's landmass and is capable of having an incredible impact on efforts to save the natural world," Martin added.