Africa’s Faiths Commit to a Living Planet under a World Bank–Supported Initiative

ethioPia/ghana/kenya/ nigeria/rwanda/ South afriCa/tanZania/ uganda/ZiMbabwe

Described as the biggest civil society movement on climate change in history, and the biggest mobilization of people and communities that we have ever seen on this issue, faith groups have a crucial role to play in protecting our planet. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa, where 90 percent of the population describe themselves as either Christian or Muslim—with 470 million Christians and 234 million Muslims. Moreover, faith leaders are figures of huge influence and trust. They cannot be ignored in the search for a coordinated response to protecting our planet.

The Alliance of Religions and Conservation, a secular body that helps the world’s major faiths develop environmental programs based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices, is doing just that, with support from the World Bank’s African-led TerrAfrica partnership. The innovative project is a new awakening to help shape beliefs, behavior, and actions for a greener and better Africa. The unprecedented outreach to 184 million people provides an extraordinary opportunity for long-term engagement to achieve long-lasting impact and create a more sustainable Africa.

In fact, 27 faith groups in Sub-Saharan Africa have received support under the project to consult with their own local communities—in their mosques, temples and churches, with their young people’s associations and women’s groups, and in their schools—on actions needed to protect their environment. The resulting long-term plans of action on the environment were endorsed by the highest authority of the faith groups, ranging from the National Muslim Council of Tanzania to the Hindu Council of Africa, the Qadiriyyah Sufi Movement in Nigeria, and the Protestant Council of Rwanda. This is the first time that African faith communities have come together to develop long-term plans on the environment, and this offers a unique opportunity for the World Bank, through TerrAfrica, to further build on its initial pioneering engagement to secure practical results.

The 27 faith groups in 11 different countries proposed a range of practical actions for their 184 million followers. Plans focus on community awareness raising, conservation and climate smart agricultural practices, including the sustainable use of land and water and environment education in faithrun schools. Many of the plans focus on using faith institutions as model demonstration centers to teach followers simple techniques of sustainable conservation agriculture. The faiths are also planning massive reforestation and tree-planting programs, with over 43 million trees to be planted in the next seven years.

In Ethiopia, where 85 percent of people make their living from the land, and with a church membership of 43.5 million people, this engagement could have a huge impact. The Orthodox Church, with 500,000 clergy, proposes that its 3,000 monasteries be not only spiritual centers, but become monastic communities that act as pioneers for the introduction of environmental conservation and carbon trading, as well as centers of demonstration and learning for improved agricultural practices, sustainable land management techniques, and innovations such as the introduction of biogas digesters and solar energy.

In Kenya, the 9 million Catholics, 3 million Methodists, 3 million Presbyterians, 5 million Anglicans, 1.2 million members of the Full Gospel Churches of Kenya, and the 6.5 million of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims agreed together to introduce “Farming God’s Way,” rooted in biblical teachings.

Women are central to the life of faith groups and have been key participants in this effort. In Tanzania, women not only gain new skills in nursery management and agroforestry, but are able to earn money to put food on the table and send their children to school. In Uganda, Muslim women in Gomba have been planting fruit and ficus trees around their homes, gardens and mosques, practicing agroforestry, and installing energy saving tools. Children are also a key feature of the environmental plans—educating them continues to be the backbone of the faiths’ activities in Africa. In Kenya, the project has reached out to faith schools and introduced a toolkit on “education for sustainable development,” integrating religious wisdom and environmental education.

In Nigeria, the Qadiriyyah Movement, which has an estimated 15 million followers, proposes setting up Green Grocery kiosks on the streets of Kano as official retail outlets, where the organic fruit and vegetables grown by its children in school orchards can be sold. A street-cleaning program also gives children school marks and trains them to recycle discarded plastic water bags for use in the school’s tree nursery.

This work has been hailed as transformative and “a new awakening that will help shape beliefs, behavior, and actions for a greener and better Africa.” There is hope that with faith, vision and partnership, that “new awakening” will be only the beginning—on the journey together to protect our living planet.19

Web site: www.arcworld.org