summary paper - Alliance of Religions and Conservation

OVERARCHING QUESTIONS
Agnes Aboum
Dr., Executive Committee, All Africa Conferences of Churches, and former Africa President of
the World Council of Churches
Chairperson,
Your Royal Highness, Crown Prince Haakon,
Excellencies,
Yours Holiness, Sangha Raja Bour Krey, the Patriarch of Cambodia,
Your Beatitude, Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin,
Your Grace, Rt. Rev. Mark van Koevering, the Bishop of Mozambique,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
First and foremost, I would like to start by expressing my sincere gratitude for the choice of our topic
today. Our dialogue "Religion, the Environment and Development: The Potential for Partnership" is both
timely and crucial. It is taking place at a time when the importance of the views of the society at large is
being recognized as crucial in the attainment of sustainable development. It goes without saying that,
sustainable development above all is about development that is sustainable – i.e., long lasting. To put it
simply, it is a structural change leading to enduring, widespread improvement in the well­being of
societies and their members. This process involves self­sustained economic growth, technological
change, the modernization of institutions, and changes of attitudes and values. From this characterization
it follows that enhancing individual and collective well­being is the central aim of sustainable development
as well as the key criterion for evaluating it.
Chairperson, Your Royal Highness, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
In Our Common Future (United Nations 1987) of the World Commission on Environment and
Development, more commonly known as the Brundtland Commission, defines sustainable development
as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generation to meet their own needs". This definition emphasizes the need to protect future generations
while also improving the well­being of the current generation, particularly the poor and vulnerable. Hence,
sustainable development can be characterized as a pattern of development that ensures non­decreasing
flow of well­being over time.
Meeting essential needs requires not only an era of economic growth for nations in which the majority are
poor, but an assurance that those poor get their fair share of the resources required to sustain that
growth. Such equity would be aided by political systems that secure effective citizen participation in
decision making and by greater democracy in international decision making.
Chairperson,
Let me quickly remind the Conference that the topic of environment and sustainable development has
taken a central stage since 1987. To mention just a few important gatherings that have attempted to
debate on the subject matter are the world summit of Heads of State and Government of the United
Nations members (UN) converged at the Millennium Assembly, New York, in September 2000. The
Assembly adopted the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of which environmental sustainability
is one of them. At the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 in Johannesburg,
South Africa, the issue of environment was further highlighted and given prominence.
Chairperson,
Today, a host of religious groups are, in one way or another, involved in development work. For instance,
increasing number of Christian theologians and ethicists are responding to environmental challenges as
the world gets hotter, stormier, unequal crowded and more violent, and less bio­diverse. In deed, some
have and are in the process of forming partnership with the secular groups and other development
agencies. A case in point is when an extraordinary conference was organized jointly by the Council of
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