29th IEF General Assembly 2025

The 29th General Assembly of the International Environment Forum was held over the Internet on the Zoom platform on 29 November 2029.

The meeting was held twice to accommodate members and associates from different time zones.

Participants at the first meeting: IEF members Arthur Dahl (Switzerland), Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen (Netherlands), Nava Khorram, (Latvia), Laurent Mesbah (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Rebecca Teclemariam-Mesbah (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Michael Richards (UK), IEF associate Erasmus Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen (Netherlands), and guest Carmel Momen (UK), who kindly served the IEF as a teller.

Participants at the second meeting: IEF members Cedric Åkermark (Sweden), Hedieh Badavam (France), Carol Curtis (USA), Arthur Dahl (Switzerland), Carlotta Garcia (USA), Pauline Grolin (Denmark), Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen (Netherlands), Gail Lash (Belize), David Menham (Austria), Ron Mitchell (Australia), Wendi Momen (United Kingdom), Christine Muller (USA), J. Thomas Pawlowski (USA), Margaret Tash (USA), and IEF associates Shamsideen Olawunmi Sebiotimo (Nigeria) and Erasmus Vinkhuyzen (Netherlands).

There were 8 participants at the first meeting and 16 at the second one with three participants attending twice. Altogether, there were 21 participants from 12 countries. IEF President Arthur Dahl chaired both meetings.

1. Opening of the General Assembly by the IEF President

The IEF President, Arthur Dahl, opened the General Assembly and welcomed the participants to the IEF 29th General Assembly.

2. Introduction of members present

All members introduced themselves where needed.

3. Approval of the agenda

The agenda was approved as presented.

4. Results of the election of the Governing Board

Members voted by email on 15 – 27 November 2025. The tellers were Michael Richards, Carmel Momen, and Diana Cartwright.

Carmel Momen presented the tellers’ report at the first session, and IEF President Arthur Dahl at the second. The tellers’ report was approved by IEF members at both meetings.

30 ballots were cast, all ballots were valid, one vote was invalid because the person voted for was not an IEF member. 56 people received 1 or more votes.

The Governing Board for the coming year consists of Arthur Dahl (Switzerland), Christine Muller (USA), Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen (Netherlands), Laurent Mesbah (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Victoria Thoresen (Norway), Wendi Momen (UK), Halldór Thorgeirsson (Iceland), the same as last year.

5. Presentation of the Annual Report

IEF President Arthur Dahl presented the main points of the IEF Annual Report 2024 -2025 with slides, and the report was approved by the members in both meetings, in the second meeting with the amendments of adding expressions of thanks to Tom Richards and Aaron Kelly.

The full Annual Report was already shared with all the members and is available here: https://iefworld.org/report2025, and the slides can be accessed here: https://iefworld.org/fl/AnnualReport2025GA.pdf.

6. Consultation

Here is a brief summary of the consultation from the two meetings. We thank Nava Khorram Ahmad for hosting the Zoom and for taking notes of the first meeting, and Christine Muller for reporting on the second meeting.

First meeting

Reflections on the Past Year

• Laurent Mesbah noted that this past year has been especially impressive for IEF, with an increase in activities such as the in-person conference, the COP30 global ethical stocktake, and the online climate change course.

• It was reported that IEF members Ineke Gijsbers and Les Gornall used the conference materials at the Irish summer school, demonstrating that participants are applying what they learned in their home communities.

Follow-Up with Conference Participants

• A suggestion was made to check in with conference participants six months after the event (in December) to see whether they have taken follow-up actions or started any initiatives as a result of attending.

Planning for the Next IEF Conference

• Several possible locations were proposed, focusing on places with strong Bahá’í communities, sufficient capacity, and interest in environmental topics.
◦ The Netherlands.
◦ The Canary Islands.
◦ Locations that could align with the next climate COP. Since COP31 will be in Turkey, that could be an option.
◦ Places with Bahá’í training centers.
◦ Australia, which has many active IEF members and will be leading the negotiations for COP31. It may be valuable to contact the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia to explore this further.

Engaging with Broader Discussions on Global Crises

• Members noted that discussions are emerging about the implications of multiple environmental and technological crises.

• IEF could play a role in contributing to these conversations, particularly around preparing governance systems and building capacity and resilience.

Strengthening Member Engagement

• The group reflected on ways to enhance the activity and engagement of IEF members and to identify new shared learning spaces.

• One idea was to host a monthly or quarterly open Zoom consultation for members who wish to share experiences, discuss environmental issues, and receive advice on implementing practices.

Youth Engagement

• There was a suggestion to connect with youth serving in neighbourhoods who often carry out environment-related service projects.

• Youth could be invited to share their experiences and ongoing environmental actions, potentially through collaboration with the existing IEF youth team.

Second meeting

Future IEF Conferences

Location

Carol Curtis expressed the desire for more hybrid events so that members who cannot attend the conference in person can at least participate remotely to some degree. Arthur Dahl explained the technical limitations at the Baha’i Training Centre, and Christine Muller thought that for the international IEF membership it makes sense to have most gatherings online, and that for the rare in-person meetings, the focus should be on the in-person program. Arthur Dahl then shared that there are locations that provide excellent technology where hybrid events are easy to do. David Menham mentioned that there are two suitable Baha’i venues in Vienna, and Erasmus Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen said that there would also be good options in the Netherlands for a future conference.

Arthur Dahl reminded us of earlier conferences that were physical conferences, but their intention was much more to contribute to public discourse in a location, rather than inviting all the members to take part. For example, there was one at Núr University in Bolivia, where the university organized much of it, but we were able to contribute a few speakers to take part in that conference. In other years, we partnered with the Association for Baha’i Studies in North America, the Australian Bahá’í community, or with ebbf. These are ways in which we can have a conference where we contribute an element, but others take a lot of the organizational responsibility.

Gail Lash suggested to hold regional conferences in different parts of the world every year. Christine Muller reminded us of the limitations of human resources for organizing in-person conferences.

Potential Topics

Arthur Dahl shared that in the discussion at the first meeting of the General Assembly the topic of the triple planetary crisis came up, and how climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are often addressed in silos, but that they are all interacting with each other. Also, there are discussions about the possible collapse of civilization and studies on the various tipping points and areas of risk, such as the UN global risk report, and the potential breakdown of the internet. There has been very little planning to deal with these things. So, what do the Baha'i principles say about these issues? How do we prepare people to navigate through the challenges that are coming? How do we build resilience?

Carlotta Garcia raised the question of how to communicate these issues to both people who are in positions of power or have influence as well as to people who have no information. Perhaps IEF could organize a workshop about the topic of public discourse on environment.

Carol Curtis suggested asking the youth what topics they want to have at future conferences.

Feedback about this fall’s IEF online Climate Change course

Carol Curtis said that she has learned much about climate change issues for a long time but took the course for the scientific updates and the spiritual content and found it enriching for herself, and she highly recommended it to others.

How can we encourage the participation of younger people?

Erasmus Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen contributed that this is a difficult question, especially because we cannot put all youth in one box. The arts, music, and especially videos are good ways of motivating youth.

Cedric Åkermark explained that youth are busy with studying etc. and that local engagement is a priority. Are there ways to assist youth in how to plan local activities?

Wendi Momen announced a very meaningful upcoming event for youth organized by ebbf that involves three youth mentors. (See https://www.ebbf.org/ebbf4youth)

Cedric suggested a mentorship program that can be academic, work or study related. We should give youth organizing tasks to build capacity.

Carlotta Garcia wondered what youth wants to see. We should give them the chance to share their views. Erasmus suggested an online forum that is open for casual experiences.

What can we do to ensure that the IEF will thrive in the future?

Thomas Pawlowski suggested that some youth could shadow IEF roles such as the work of the IEF president or secretary to build capacity to ensure the long-term sustainability of IEF.

IEF President Arthur Dahl thanked all the participants for their participation and closed the General Assembly.