Jakarta, MINA – The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI) or Interfaith Initiative for Tropical Forests held the Launching and Dissemination of Religious Guidelines on Forestry and Indigenous Peoples in Jakarta on Friday.
IRI National Facilitator for Indonesia Dr. Hayu S Prabowo, conveyed that this activity was a socialization to increase public understanding and awareness about forest protection through religious thoughts and guidance in tropical forest protection books.
“A total of six sets of guidebooks and sermons or religious lectures on protecting tropical forests have been prepared by a team of writers from six religious organizations in Indonesia,” Hayu said while delivering an introduction to the Launching and Dissemination of Religious Guidelines on Forestry and Indigenous Peoples by IRI in Jakarta on Friday.
The event was attended by 200 religious leaders from six Islamic, Christian, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian religious organizations, in which five religious leaders attended offline and 20 attended online from eight religious assemblies.
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The Chairperson of the Indonesian Council of Ulama’s Council for the Exaltation of the Environment and Natural Resources (LPLH SDA MUI) also said this agenda was also the first step to equip religious leaders with the necessary knowledge, educational tools, and training to become effective advocates for tropical forest protection. .
“The interfaith community is one of the great potentials in Indonesia which is needed in the context of leadership and building awareness to build changes in behavior about the environment, especially the protection of tropical forests, so that it becomes more popular in the community,” said Hayu.
Interfaith cooperation is essential to stop tropical deforestation. It is time to increase the protection of tropical forests and the rights of indigenous peoples to a shared moral concern and a religious priority.
Hayu also assessed that efforts to conserve or preserve the environment so far have usually always been carried out using a scientific approach based on science and technology which is generally explained in academic languages which are often difficult for ordinary people to understand.
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“For that we need a form of moral message and other social messages in the form of religious normative law. An approach with religious language can complement rationalist messages, so messages can be more persuasive and motivate people to live a better life in this world and the hereafter,” he concluded.
Therefore, continued Hayu, recently world conservation practitioners have begun to use conservation efforts with a belief approach or based on faith.
The IRI Indonesia is a platform for religious leaders and religious communities to work hand-in-hand with indigenous peoples, governments, civil society, and the business world in actions that protect tropical forests and protect those who act as their guardians.
This association is an international, interfaith alliance that seeks to give moral urgency and faith-based leadership to global efforts to end tropical deforestation.
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This initiative believes that the time has come for a global movement to care for tropical forests, which is based on the inherent values of forests, and inspired by religious values, ethics, and moral guidelines.
This initiative moves globally to bring a moral voice on forest protection to international policy-making forums on the environment, climate change, indigenous peoples’ issues, and sustainable development.(T/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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