"Consider the world of created beings, how varied and diverse they are in species yet with one sole origin.
All the differences that appear are those of outward form...
Briefly, it is not only their fellow human beings that the beloved of God must treat with mercy and compassion, rather they must show forth the utmost loving-kindness to every living creature...
The feelings are one and the same whether ye inflict pain on man or beast."

-'Abdu'l-Bahá Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, pp. 158-159

Friends, our spring newsletter includes the following features:

Please send us contributions about environmental issues in your country which may be published in future issues of LEAVES. I hope that you will enjoy this issue of LEAVES and remain with warmest greetings.

- Bettina Moser (for the LEAVES team)

The 7th Annual Conference of the International Environment Forum (IEF) was held in Orlando, Florida, USA in conjunction with the 2003 Bahá'í Development Seminar and Conference on Social and Economic Development (SED) for the Americas, organized by the Rabbani Trust (www.rabbanitrust.org) . Over 1,000 people participated in the SED conference. The IEF component consisted of four breakout sessions and one plenary lecture during the seminar, an Environmental Interest Group networking session, and two breakout sessions during the conference, each repeated twice to permit maximum participation. There were 30-50 participants in most IEF sessions.

The IEF Conference this year focused on education for sustainable development and was intended to provide materials and approaches for community involvement in the United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development to begin in 2005. The conference was preceded by an IEF electronic conference using e-mail involving 38 participants from 16 countries.

For complete reports of the two IEF conferences please see: http://www.bcca.org/ief/conf7.htm

The city of Barcelona, known for its commitment to culture and urban renewal, will be hosting World Environment Day 2004. This Year's Global Theme will be: Wanted! Seas and Oceans Dead or Alive? which reflects important United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) activities in the field of the marine environment and sustainable coastal livelihoods. The annual World Environment Day (WED) event, celebrated around the globe each year on or around 5 June, will take place during the nearly five-month long Universal Forum of Cultures that is being hosted by the Barcelona City Council, the Catalan Autonomous Government and the Spanish Government.

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, said "the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which in 2002 drew up a Plan of Implementation with time tables and targets, had thrown down several challenges in respect to fisheries, marine protected areas, small island developing States and marine pollution. There was a time when humankind viewed the oceans and seas as vast and unchanging, able to absorb and dilute pollution, and provide seemingly limitless catches of fish and other marine-living resources... Unlike the land, where concepts of ownership and management have been established for centuries, the oceans have been viewed as truly wilderness areas, owned by no one and free for all, he added. That was fine in a world, now long ago, where a coastal mega-city might have been a few thousand rather than 10 million souls. But the growth in the global population, where more than 40 per cent now live by the coast, allied to our abilities to hunt faster and further for ever greater quantities of marine-living resources means we can no longer treat the seas and oceans as a free for all, uncared for and unmanaged", said Mr. Toepfer. "So I welcome the generosity and enthusiasm of the Government of Spain, the Catalan Autonomous Government and the City of Barcelona to host this year s World Environment Day with its theme of seas and oceans. I am sure that the awareness that will be raised will catalyze further, long-lasting action from governments, right down to the smallest seaside village, to deliver the WSSD Plan of Implementation. I am also impressed by the commitment to environmental technologies which show how a modern, 21st century city can reduce its ecological footprint, not only on the seas but on the air and the land", he added.

Joan Clos, the Mayor of Barcelona, said: "World Environment Day will be a key celebration of the Universal Forum of Cultures. Its focus on peace, sustainability and respect for cultural diversity, reflects the global issues confronting our world of which the seas and oceans and the peoples who are linked with them are a key part... Indeed, culture and its links with the environment, are critical. In many ways it is those culturally rich parts of the globe where concepts of conservation, of the sustainable harvesting of natural resources, of living in harmony with wildlife and landscapes, are so keenly understood. Loss of culture is not only a tragedy for the world's social fabric, but a loss of intimate knowledge of the natural world," he said.

WED, commemorated each year on 5 June is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. WED was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP. Information on the day, logos, posters, fact sheets and ideas on how to celebrate WED can be found at www.unep.org/wed/2004