Wednesday 30 January 2008

Alliance of Religions and Conservation - ARC

Yesterday people from ARC the Alliance of Religions and Conservation were visiting Geneva. Today I've been looking at their website and discovering things about their work and campaigns, linking religions and environmental issues. They are working together with the UN on a programme on faith and climate change.

Explaining why they are working specifically with the faiths on this issue UNDP give the following reasons:

The faiths are major land owners – they own more than 7% of the habitable land surface of the planet.

* The faiths are major providers of education and health care world wide.

Buddhist monks in Cambodia are leading tree planting and forest protection initiatives
* The faiths have vast media networks.

* The faiths together make up one of the largest investing groups in the world.

* The great faiths have astonishing outreach: and often faith leaders are trusted where government and military leaders are not.

*Each faith has clear teachings on caring for nature - which they are seeking to implement in practical projects.

ARC seems like a really good initiative, linking interreligious concerns to practical work for the planet.

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