Religion employed for environmental causes

Religion employed for environmental causes

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Environment Sarwono
Kusumaatmadja warns that the barrage of campaigns to save the
environment should take into consideration the values and beliefs
of the people to be more effective. One being religious values.

Many pro-environment messages are lost on the public because
they fail to touch values which people believe are at stake,
Sarwono said on Monday.

This failure results in "ambivalent attitudes" on the part of
the people coupled with numerous difficulties encountered by
efforts to save the environment, he said in a keynote address
launching a five-day workshop on traditional beliefs and
religious approaches to environmental preservation.

Given the central role that religion plays in people's lives,
religious approaches may become an effective, propelling drive in
the campaign against environmental degradation caused by
materialistic approaches of development, he said.

"All religions carry the same environmental messages that
efforts by human beings to improve material well-being should be
carried out through sustainable means."

Using religion will help Indonesia contribute more to the
international environmental campaigns since all major religions
of the world, as well as hundreds of traditional beliefs, have
adherents here, he said.

An estimated 30 local and foreign environmentalists and
journalists are taking part in the workshop, which continues
today in Trawas, Mojokerto, East Java.

Prominent scholars participating include Dr. Franz Magnis
Soeseno, Dr. Nurcholis Madjid and Soetjipto Wirosardjono from
Indonesia and Pamela Colorado from the Worldwide Indigenous
Science Network in Hawaii and Lalitha Vaidyanathan from India.

Sponsored by the Earth Wire Project environmental news network
and UNESCO, the workshop aims to establish inventories of values
advocated by religions and traditional beliefs concerning the
preservation of nature, and analyzing and translating relevant
values into popular messages to be disseminated by the media to
the public.

UNESCO's chief representative to Indonesia, Jurgen Hillig, in
his address to the workshop on Monday, commended various non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) which have been playing pivotal
roles in the environmental preservation campaign. "The NGOs have
contributed mightily by mobilizing necessary emotional commitment
to ensure that meaningful actions are undertaken," he said.

He pointed out that there is a need for enhanced education on
global and environmental change and their impacts on natural
resources. "The educational institutions will face new pressures
to provide adequate training on those issues," he said.

Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri, a legal expert, said Indonesia's
1982 Environmental Management Act provides a strong legal base
for the role of religion in the development of environmental
awareness.

"One of the strong avenues to develop environmental awareness
is religion, which teaches, among other things, how to treat the
environment entrusted to man by God," he said.

The environmental act points out that the living environment
is a blessing from God and its capability must be developed and
sustained so that it can continue to serve as a life source and
support, he said.

He suggested that future environmental campaigns involve
intellectuals from the younger generations. (swe)