Scientists team up with indigenous, faithful to fight for forests
Scientists team up with indigenous, faithful to fight for forests
by Andrew J. Wight on 11 December 2018
MEDELLIN, Colombia — An alliance of scientists, development experts, indigenous peoples and religious leaders met late last month in Colombia to determine how church leaders can help drive environmental public policy in the largely Catholic country. The meeting was under the umbrella of the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI), a global coalition launched in mid-2017 to fight escalating threats to forests in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
“We see this as a way to reconcile not only the victims and perpetrators of violence, but also humanity with their environment,” said Francisco Duque-Gómez, an Episcopal bishop and president of the Interreligious Council in Colombia, in an interview with Mongabay.
Duque-Gómez said although there were communities of faith in “every corner of Colombia,” it was important to not only lobby for change on a national level, but to get congregation members the environmental information they needed to take action. IRI hopes to augment its national policy work with benefits from grassroots efforts by faith leaders to educate communities about topics like deforestation.
The hope is that the interfaith, interdisciplinary IRI will not only unite communities fractured by 50 years of civil conflict in Colombia, but will also serve as a model for similar campaigns in Peru, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those countries also have large indigenous communities and are grappling with deforestation and post-conflict issues.
More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/scientists-team-up-with-indigenous-faithful-to-fight-for-forests/
Environment and energy:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127121889