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The rainforests of the world are pivotal to the global ecology, to the health and sustainability of our planet, and for indigenous people whose livelihoods and cultures depend on them. But today rainforests around the world are at escalating risk of destruction and collapse, due to exploitation of short-term interests and lack of protection by governments. To protect and to care for these precious repositories of biodiversity and Indigenous knowledge, faith communities from different traditions can play a key role in ethical and moral leadership.
A “Resource Guide on Rainforest Protection for Religious Communities,”produced by the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI), is being released on 5 June as part of World Environment Day.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is part of the IRI – which focuses especially on the situation in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia, which together account for 70% of the world’s remaining rainforests.
“In partnership with other IRI members, the WCC is committed to amplifying a joint call to protect, restore and sustainably manage rainforests,” said Rev. Henrik Grape, senior advisor for care and creation, sustainability and climate justice at WCC. “Hopefully, this call will resonate beyond the forests and help catalyze action for sustainable development, climate justice, food and health security, equality and human rights globally.”
The IRI resource guide offers religious and faith communities information on the current deforestation crisis, spiritual perspectives on the vital role of tropical forests in the world’s biological and spiritual ecology, and suggestions for actions that people and institutions of faith can take to address the deforestation crisis and protect the world’s remaining rainforests.
“By using tools such as this resource guide, we as Christians, together with people of other faiths, can be influential agents for the protection life in rainforests and in a wider perspective, on the whole Earth,” said WCC interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca. “In protecting the rainforests, we protect the ‘lungs’ of the planet, and begin to build new more sustainable relationships in God’s creation and in facing the climate emergency.”
In a November 2019 “Statement on the Climate Change Emergency,” the WCC Executive Committee said that the climate crisis is not a distant prospect, but is upon us today. “The time for debate and disputation of established scientific facts is long over,” the statement reads. “The time for action is swiftly passing.”
The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative
Learn more about the WCC work on Care for Creation and Climate Justice