STEWARDSHIP AS A BRIDGE

1. STEWARDSHIP AS A BRIDGE AN ISLAMIC APPROACH TO CONSERVATION

2. Can the thinking that produced the problem produce the solutions? THE DRIVE FOR UNIVERSAL PROSPERITY BASED ON • DEVELOPMENT • PROGRESS ACHIEVED AT A PRICE DEVELOPMENT + PROGRESS = DESTRUCTION + POLLUTION D + P = D + P

3. THE PROBLEM 1987 – Brundtland Report (Our Common Future) Thought up the idea of sustainable development 2005 – UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warns Human resource needs growing exponentially 60% of world’s ecosystem services degraded 2007 – UNEP Global Environment Outlook Humans living beyond their means 2009 – Inter governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Climate change may bring “abrupt and irreversible” change

4. THE CONUNDRUM 2008 – UN Development Policy and Analysis Division WARNS – • World economy teetering on the brink of severe economic downturn • Deepening credit crisis • Slow down in the growth of global economy URGES – Need for aggressive and coordinated expansionary policies

5. CHALLENGING THE MINDSET Harvard Biologist Edward Wilson The human species is an environmental abnormality Palaeontologist Michael Boulter Our power to damage has grown to make our aggression terminal not just dangerous Futurist Alvin Tofler Not even the most brilliant scientist alive today know where science is taking us Existential philosopher Martin Heidegger Humans reduced to a standing reserve for technology

6. NATURE Theodore Adorno & Max Horkheimer in the Dialectic of the Enlightenment Mans confrontation with nature alienates him from his own nature PernillaOuis in Power, Person and Place: Tradition, Modernity and Environment in the United Arab Emirates Why camels now ride in pick up trucks rather than people riding them as used to be the tradition

7. BREACHING THE LIMITS Richard Tarnas in Passion of the Western Mind Speaks of a psychological shift in allegiance from the divine to the human JK Galbraith in the Acquisitive Society The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite

8. AN ISLAMIC APPROACHSTEP ONE ETHICS QUR’AN, SUNNAH – ‘ILM UL KHALQ TAWHIDFITRAMIZAN KHALIFA UNITY NATURE BALANCE RESPONSIBILITY Principle Principle Principle Principle 

9. AN ISLAMIC APPROACHSTEP TWO PRACTISE – SHARIAH HEMAAL HARIM IQTA’ IJARA ConservationInviolable zones Land grants Leased land Special reserves Specific restrictions Reclamation & Reclamation & State or private State or private Development Development 

10. AN ISLAMIC APPROACHSTEP THREE ACCOUNTABILITY HISBATECHNICAL MUHATASIB PARAMETERS ADJUDICATIONIMPLEMANTATION

11. SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES • Religious beliefs and traditions call us to care for the earth. • For people of faith maintaining and sustaining environmental life systems is a religious responsibility. • Nature should be treated with respect and compassion, thus forming a basis for our sense of responsibility for conserving plants, animals, land, water, air and energy. • Environmental understanding is enhanced when people learn from the example of prophets and of nature itself. • Markets and trade arrangements should reflect the spiritual needs of people and their communities to ensure health, justice and harmony. Justice and equity principles of faith traditions should be used for maintaining and sustaining environmental life systems. • People of faith should give more emphasis to a higher quality of life in preference to a higher standard of living, recognising that greed and avarice are root causes of environmental degradation and human debasement. • All faiths should fully recognise and promote the role of women in environmental sustainability. • People of faith should be involved in the conservation and development process. Development of the environment must take better account of its effects on the community and its religious beliefs • Faith communities should endorse multilateral consultation in a form that recognises the value of local/indigenous wisdom and current scientific information. • In the context of faith perspectives, emphasis should be given not only to the globalisation of human endeavours, but also to participatory community action.

12. RECOMMENDED COURSES OF ACTION • We call upon religious leaders to emphasise environmental issues within religious teaching: faith should be taught and practised as if nature mattered • We call upon religious communities to commit themselves to sustainable practices and encourage community use of their land. • We call upon religious leaders to recognise the need for ongoing environmental education and training for themselves and all those engaged in religious instruction. • We call upon people of faith to promote environmental education within their community especially among their youth and children. • We call upon people of faith to implement individual, community and institutional action plans at local, national, and global levels that flow from their spiritual practices and where possible to work with other faith communities. • We call upon religious leaders and faith communities to pursue peacemaking as an essential component of conservation action. • We call upon religious leaders and communities to be actively involved in caring for the environment to sponsor sustainable food production and consumption. • We call upon people of faith to take up the challenge of instituting fair trading practices devoid of financial, economic and political exploitation. • We call upon the world’s religious leaders and world institutions to establish and maintain a networking system that will encourage sustainable agriculture and environmental life systems. • We call upon faith communities to act immediately, to undertake self-review and auditing processes on conservation issues on a regular basis.