[pf] Sacred Gifts for a Living Planet

· Some hope for a positive future:

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http://davd.tripod.com/APRR-001130.html#11-16-12
  is:

    - Nepal -
† Religious Leaders in Nepal Bearing Gifts—  Religious leaders from the
world's 12 major faiths journeyed to Nepal for a conservation conference
dubbed Sacred Gifts for a Living Planet, in the week of November 16, 2000.
Jain monk Munisri Kamalkumur walked 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from his
home in India to bless the opening of this week's conference. From Bahais
to Zoroastrians, each religion represented at the World Wide Fund for
Nature's (WWF) 39th annual conference has announced conservation
initiatives. These initiatives include a drive by the Methodist Church
worldwide to develop an ethical investment framework for up to US$30
billion of church assets, to support environmental and social justice,
through shareholder action, engagement with corporate heads and consumer
choice. In 1997, Nepal declared Kanchanjanga Conservation Area in the
far-eastern hills as the country's first gift to the earth. Nepal has
established a network of 16 protected areas covering a total of 17,000
square kilometers, nearly 19 percent of the country's total land area. 
  Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and president emeritus of WWF, accepted
26 Sacred Gifts for a Living Planet at the gathering of more than 500
conservationists and religious leaders in Bhaktapur, the 12th century city
15 kilometers east of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. The religious faiths
represented at the conference are Bahais, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus,
Jains, Jews, Muslims, Shinto, Sikhs, Taoists and Zoroastrians. This meeting
resembles the WWF's 25th annual conference in the Italian city of Assisi in
1986. Organizers define a sacred gift as a practical, concrete and active
expression of a religious tradition and its belief about the natural world. 

Here are descriptions of some of the gifts announced Wednesday. 

* The U.S. National Council of Churches in cooperation with the National
Religious Partnership for the Environment will significantly expand their
state by state effort to forge coalitions for greenhouse gas reduction and
advocacy work on global warming. 
* The U.S. Episcopal Power and Light Ministry is expanding its program to
combat global warming. The project encourages individuals, groups and
institutions inside and outside the church to purchase renewable energy. 
* The women's division of the U.S. United Methodist Church is launching an
initiative to eliminate the use of chlorine in paper products throughout
the church in an effort to reduce the amount of dioxins released into the
environment. 
* Two archbishops and six bishops, representing 1.5 million Catholics in
Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington and the Canadian province of British
Columbia, are campaigning to stop degradation of Columbia river. 
* The Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues, whose members account
for about one quarter of the United Kingdom's Jewish community, has
launched a wide ranging environmental audit, focusing on key issues
including climate change and forest conservation. 
* The Mexican state of San Luis Potosi in partnership with indigenous
Huichol Indians and Conservation Humana have enlarged its Huiricuta
Ecological and Cultural Protected Area by 50 percent. 
* The Catholic Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, will expand their
innovative environmental education program, which works in some of the
poorest neighborhoods in the city. 
* The United Methodist Pension Board is converting all the denominations'
funds - about US$30 billion - to ethical investments. 
* Pariah Pumps, a Christian environmental network, primarily made up of
Church of England parishes in association with the Conservation Foundation,
is establishing a network of 4,000 parishes to promote environmental
awareness and action. 
* The Church of Sweden, one of the country's largest forest owners, will
certify at least 100,000 hectares, one quarter of its forests, as
sustainably managed forest. 
* Buddhists in Mongolia - home to 700 endangered snow leopards - have
reinstated a hunting and logging ban which will allow for much greater
protection of important natural sites such as the Khan Kentii conservation
area, which covers 1.2 million hectares. 
* Japan's Shinto religion is expanding its commitment to sustainable
management in all of its sacred forests. 
* The 7,000 Sherpa people living in Nepal's Sagarmatha (Everest) National
Park will participate in a major drive towards sustainable forest
management shaped by traditional religious and cultural practices. 
* India's Sikh community has launched an initiative to promote
environmentally sustainable lifestyle, focusing on energy and water
conservation. 
* The Maronite Church of Lebanon has created the first Maronite Protected
Environment in 400 hectares of the Harisa Forest north of Beirut on the
hills facing the Bay of Jounieh. 
* The Jain community has created the international Ahimsa Award to be given
annually by the Jain Institute to Jain companies, communities and
individuals who promote good environment practices. 
* The China Taoist Association is calling on its 40 million members to stop
using endangered species in traditional Chinese medicine and look for
environmentally sustainable alternatives. The association will also join
forces with the Buddhist Association of China to develop a program to
protect and restore Taoist and Buddhist sacred mountains. 
* Starting next spring, the Zoroastrian community in India will plant
groves of baval trees, used to fire their temples, besides planting non-use
groves to re-establishing woodlands in areas of deforestation. 
* The Muslim fishing communities of Pemba and Misali islands in Tanzania
will conserve one of the most important turtle nesting sites in the
Zanzibar archipelago, which is home to some of the most magnificent coral
reef in the western Indian ocean. 
* Representatives from a range of Hindu groups and of the local government
in Orissa, India, will restore and re-establish the state's sacred forests
to provide sustainably produced wood for the ancient Hindu festival
honoring Lord Jagannath. 
* The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, called the first among equals
in the orthodox church, recently announced the creation of the River of
Life environmental network along the Danube River. 
* The leaders of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Union
of American Hebrew Congregations will ask their members to undertake the
most ambitious environmental program ever launched by American Judaism. 
* Saudi Arabia's National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and
Development will establish the country's first Biosphere Reserve. 

To read more about "Journey to Kathmandu: Sacred Gifts to the Living
Planet," visit: 
http://www.wwf-uk.org/news/news161.htm 

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sent on by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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