Leaves 27 (6) - June 2025

        Newsletter of the
         INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM
         Volume 27, Number 6 --- 15 June 2025    

Website: iefworld.org
Article submission: newsletter@iefworld.org Deadline next issue 10 July 2025
Secretariat Email: ief@iefworld.org Christine Muller General Secretary 
Postal address: 12B Chemin de Maisonneuve, CH-1219 Chatelaine, Geneva, Switzerland
Download the easier to read pdf version

From the Editor, Request for information for upcoming newsletters

This newsletter is an opportunity for IEF members to share their experiences, activities, and  initiatives that are taking place at the community level on environment, climate change  and sustainability. All members are welcome to contribute information about related  activities, upcoming conferences, news from like-minded organizations, recommended  websites, book reviews, etc. Please send information to newsletter@iefworld.org.

Please share the Leaves newsletter and IEF membership  information with family, friends and associates, and encourage interested persons to consider  becoming a member of the IEF.

Transformative Change for Community Resilience and Solidarity

Transformative Change for Community Resilience and Solidarity is the overall theme of this newsletter. Here are some highlights: 

Motivating Transformative Change is the topic of the hybrid panel at the IEF conference on 28 June. We hope that you will be able to attend! All information about the panel and how to join the event online is in the first article below.
The IEF is co-sponsoring the National Alliance of Women’s Organisation’s (NAWO) event at Lon-don Climate Action Week on 25 June on Women, Sustainability, and Justice: A Call for Systemic Change.
The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2025 by the United Nations University Institute for En-vironment and Human Security provides the scientific foundation for “the central question on many people’s minds: how do we change course?”
In the article Values-based Transformative Learning, IEF President Arthur Dahl explains the dis-tinctive contribution of the IEF to inform on the realities we are facing, and to motivate change in behaviour by its combination of science and values.
The article Something luminous amid the ruin by the Baha’i International Community reports about how community-building in Spain has enhanced resilience to floods.
The article Community-Building for Resilience in Hard Times is a reflection about “How can we make our own community more resilient to climate change and other environmental and social problems?”
At the Youth Interfaith Summit in the UK, “participants explored how spiritual principles—such as the oneness of humanity—can reframe climate challenges as shared responsibilities grounded in our deep interconnectedness.”

HYBRID PANEL AT IEF CONFERENCE
 Motivating Transformative Change

While this panel will take place in person during the IEF conference, it will be accessible to every-one via Zoom! Please, send an email in advance to advance@momen.plus.com to receive the Zoom link.

Panelists will share thoughts and experiences about how transformative change has happened and what kind of motivation has helped them initiate or sustain it:

Moderator:
Dr. Serik Tokbolat, Assistant Professor in Sustainability and Sustainable Construction Engineering at the University of Nottingham

Topics and Panelists: 
TROPICAL DEFORESTATION - CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS
Dr Michael Richards, Natural Resources Economist
WOMEN AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Monica E. Maghami, regulatory lawyer in sustainability and technology, NAWO
MOTIVATING TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE REQUIRES FINDING A NEW 'WHY?'
Kristian Noll, Partnerships and Impact Coordinator at the LSE Religion and Global Society Unit
CHANGING THE WORLD VS WORLDS
Ash, Teacher of Geography
AIMING AT WELL-BEING FOR ALL
Victoria W. Thoresen, emerita, former UNESCO Chair for Education for Sustainable Lifestyles

For brief descriptions of the talks and speakers’ biographies, please, visit the Panel Website: https://iefworld.org/conf29-1 

This hybrid panel is part of the IEF 29th Annual Conference. In-person conference registration is now closed.

Women, Sustainability, and Justice: 
A Call for Systemic Change

NAWO, National Alliance of Women’s Organisations, is contributing to London Climate Action Week on 25 June with a discussion on Women, Sustainability, and Justice: A Call for Systemic Change. This event will take place from 10:30 to 12:30 in MacLaren Hall at ESE, European School of Economics (London), 11-13 Mandeville Place, W1U 3AJ – London, UK.

The panels will explore women's leadership in environmental justice and nature-based solutions, gender-responsive climate policy and legal reform, and the importance of trust, unity, and moral leadership in climate governance. 

The event will feature two engaging panel discussions. Topics will include:
● Women’s leadership in environmental justice and nature-based solutions
● Gender-responsive climate policy and legal reform
● The role of trust, unity, and moral leadership in climate governance

The IEF is a co-sponsor of this event. Other co-sponsors are G20 Interfaith Forum, European School of Economics, Justina Mutale Foundation, Mobilizing an Earth Governance Alliance (MEGA), and Climate Education Centre.
Panelists will include IEF board members Nava Ahmad, Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, Monica Maghami, and Wendi Momen.

To attend in person only, please register on this link: https://bit.ly/CAWnawo 

UNOC3 Multifaith Declaration

Following a request from UNEP Faith for Earth, the International Environment signed the Multifaith Declaration drafted for the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in June. It can be seen at https://www.oceans.faith/en/declaration.

The UNOC3 Multi-Faith Declaration is a landmark interfaith commitment to marine conservation and ocean protection.

The declaration was developed in a rigorous collaborative process with representatives from di-verse faith traditions, marine conservation experts, and policy specialists. It articulates shared spiritual values for ocean protection and provides concrete policy recommen-dations to support marine conservation goals.

Source: https://www.oceans.faith/sign 

Values-based Transformative Learning

SUMMARY

For many years, the International Environment Forum, as a Bahá’í-inspired professional organisation, has developed and partnered in educational approaches and learning materials that combine the scientific realities of the challenges facing the Earth System and its dominant human species, with the values required to accept the unity of the human family and the necessary solidarity in justice and equity, and thus to motivate transformation in individual behaviour, community cooperation and collective action. Its website (https://iefworld.org/learning) makes available a wide variety of materials for transformative learning for sustainability and environmental responsibility. It also draws on the wider experience of the Bahá’í faith with spiritual transformation, community discourse and social action that has already demonstrated its effectiveness in a multitude of cultural contexts around the world. The innovations explored combine science and values to heal our relationship with nature, to draw on interfaith approaches across all spiritual traditions and Indigenous worldviews, and to generate educational materials that can be incorporated in any educational system or used directly by individuals and communities.

The central purpose of the International Environment Forum since its founding nearly 30 years ago has been to provide its membership, partners and the wider public with a deeper understanding of the science behind climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and all the other challenges to the Earth System and human wellbeing, as well as a systemic perspective on their underlying causes in our economic system, social organisation, institutions and governance. Despite decades of effort, humanity continues to degrade the planet, and powerful interests block the necessary fundamental transformation towards a just and sustainable world society in all its diversity.

IEF members participated in the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 where IEF was accredited in the Scientific and Technological Organisation Major Group, Rio+20 in 2012, and many other UN meetings and climate change COPs. It is accredited to the Convention on Biological Diversity and has members that contribute to IPBES, and as an organization it has worked actively to share the outcomes of IPBES reports with its members and the public. It continues to support efforts for United Nations reform and more effective global environmental governance. These broad activities have provided the grounding for the development of learning materials and other educational resources all aimed at transformative learning.

The IEF has prepared and shared educational materials in many forms, from simple materials on environmental management for rural village use, and on-line courses, to case studies of effective social action. Its website is its primary resource where these materials are freely available, and it has also contributed to academic publications, some referenced in this paper.

The distinctive contribution of the IEF is its combination of science and values as complementary and mutually-reinforcing components of education. Inspired by the learning paradigm inherent in the Bahá’í Faith, and by its openness to other faith traditions and to indigenous worldviews and spiritualities, it aims both to inform on the realities we are facing, and to motivate change in behav-iour, as essential contributors to more hopeful approaches to the future.

To continue reading this article, go here: https://iefworld.org/trans_learning

Oneness and Interdependence in Governance

BAHÁ’Í WORLD CENTRE — What if addressing the world’s most pressing challenges—from climate change to extreme economic inequality—requires not only resources and knowledge, but fundamentally reimagining the organizing principles that guide international cooperation?

A new podcast episode from the Bahá’í World News Service explores this fundamental challenge, featuring representatives of the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York.

Bani Dugal from the BIC’s New York Office highlights the Bahá’í community’s long-standing participation in the discourse on global governance, noting a recent BIC statement, “Embracing Interdependence: Foundations for a World in Transition,” shared at the UN Summit of the Future. This statement, she explains, invites the international community “to reconsider the organizing principle of the oneness of humanity. We believe that without this principle at the center of any governing system... we will not be able to have peace and security in the world.”

Rachel Bayani from the Brussels Office elaborates on how this principle challenges prevailing assumptions about international relations. Rather than viewing humanity as individuals with competing interests, she says, the Bahá’í perspective sees “humanity as one single unit... where the well-being of one part of the world is contingent upon that of the whole. Whatever system that is going to be put into place must be designed jointly by everyone.”

The conversation reveals how current approaches to governance often undermine their own goals. Well-intentioned climate policies adopted in one region, for example, can severely impact agricultural sectors elsewhere when developed without considering global interconnectedness. This understanding, participants suggest, calls for a fundamental re-evaluation of concepts such as power. Simin Fahandej from the Geneva Office contrasts the common view of power as “dominance..., competition..., and superiority” with a vision where power represents “the ability to release the capacity of humanity..., to release the power of love, and the power of unity.” Hatem El-Hady from the Cairo Office elaborates on the need to question fundamental assumptions. “We have to re-examine all the paradigms that have brought us this far,” he said, pointing to global conflicts as evidence of failing systems. “Until we start to think about our unity as a fundamental principle and our common identity as noble human beings... we cannot see one part of the world being prosperous and comfortable and the rest of the world not.”

Solomon Belay from the Addis Ababa Office describes how discussion needs to move beyond theoretical frameworks to addressing practical governance challenges. He explains that numerous charters and conventions among African nations remain unimplemented due to narrow conceptions of national sovereignty that prioritize individual state interests over collective progress.

The conversation highlighted how essential consultation is to effective governance—not as negotiation between predetermined positions, but as collaborative examination of reality. “Consultation is a means to allow us to achieve our collective purpose,” notes Desytia Nawris from Jakarta.

The podcast suggests that lasting peace requires more than the absence of conflict—it demands governance systems that channel humanity’s capacity for cooperation rather than competition, guided by recognition of our shared spiritual nature.

The podcast episode is part of the “In Conversation” series, a collective exploration of the practical application of Bahá’í principles to the building of peaceful societies.

Source: Baha'i World News: https://news.bahai.org/podcasts/in-conversation/1800/in-conversation-bic-oneness-interdependence-governance 

"Something luminous amid the ruin"

Seven months after catastrophic flooding in eastern Spain, communities have discovered deeper capacities for unity, service, and resilience amid ongoing recovery.

When the skies opened over Spain’s eastern Valencia region on October 29, 2024, no one imagined the devastation that would follow. In just 24 hours, the AEMET meteorological station in Turís recorded an unprecedented 771.8 mm of rain—almost a year’s share poured down in just three hours. The Poyo ravine swelled, unleashing catastrophic flooding across 75 municipalities in eastern Spain.

The floodwaters claimed more than 230 lives, affected 1.8 million residents, and destroyed tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Seven months later, signs of the physical devastation remain visible. But alongside this destruction, another reality has emerged: a profound transformation in how people and entire communities relate to one another.

“Amid so much material and emotional ruin, we have also witnessed something luminous,” reflects Shirín Jiménez, member of the Regional Bahá’í Council of eastern Spain. “The crisis has enabled many to set aside habits of individualism and revealed our capacity for genuine mutual support—a love of neighbor that has guided our recovery.”

Moving beyond material response

The initial response focused on meeting immediate physical needs—removing water and mud, distributing food and supplies, and providing shelter. Young people from affected areas and across Spain who are engaged in Bahá’í community-building endeavors that build capacity for service, assisted with clearing debris and supporting affected neighborhoods.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Spain offered the Bahá’í Centre in Llíria—a municipality of Valencia city—to house security personnel responding to the disaster. Over seven weeks, the Centre accommodated 476 police officers from 46 different localities across Spain, with 24 volunteers working daily to provide meals, laundry services, and a comforting environment during a traumatic time.

The Centre became a space for meaningful connection. “What began as practical aid transformed into a shared journey of learning,” notes Shabnam Majidi, a volunteer who helped at the Centre.

She added: “Officers would return each evening exhausted from their work in devastated communities, finding not just physical rest but genuine human connection. Many commented that the atmosphere of care and common endeavor gave them strength to continue their difficult work.”

In neighborhoods where people had previously been engaged in Bahá’í community-building initiatives, there emerged a response that addressed both material and spiritual dimensions of recovery. Some formed teams to provide spaces for residents to process their experiences and find meaning amid their suffering.

In a conversation with the News Service, Jéssica Álvaro, an Auxiliary Board member, stated: “In their conversations, participants of community-building initiatives tried to create space for both expression of grief and reflection on hope. Many found comfort in discussing not just what was lost, but what was being discovered—the capacity for compassion, the strength found in unity, the possibility of building something better together.”

Strengthening educational initiatives

In the days following the disaster, facilitators of Bahá’í moral and spiritual educational programs began improvising classes for children in Algemesí—one of the hardest-hit areas, where schools had been destroyed.

“They created a learning space amid extraordinary circumstances—at times using the hood of a damaged car as a makeshift desk,” recalled Mrs. Álvaro. “Despite the challenging conditions, they engaged the children in activities that offered not just moments of distraction from the devastation but genuine joy. When parents saw their children laughing and learning after days of distress, they immediately asked if these classes could continue.”

What began as an impromptu response evolved into regular moral educational activities for children and youth in the neighborhood.

“These educational spaces helped young people recognize their capacity to contribute meaningfully to their community’s recovery,” explained Gloria Ulloa, who facilitates one of the youth groups that formed during the crisis. “They’re discovering that even in uncertain times, they can be sources of hope and positive action in their families and neighborhoods.”

Fostering collective patterns of community life

In contemporary Spanish society, as in many parts of the world, the rapid rhythm of daily life has gradually weakened neighborhood ties. The October floods sparked an immediate wave of solidarity, yet what is most striking is how that first impulse has been cultivated and sustained through community-building initiatives. Regular devotional gatherings and moral educational classes for children and youth offer spaces where residents pray, consult, and plan acts of service, strengthening habits of mutual support and care.

“Before the floods, there was often a certain reserve between neighbors—people might live beside each other for years with limited interaction,” Mrs. Álvaro reflected. “What we have witnessed is a remarkable opening of homes and hearts. People who once barely exchanged greetings now readily welcome each other into their homes and genuinely inquire about each other’s wellbeing.”

In these places, priorities have shifted. Material possessions seem less important than human connection and shared responsibility. Bonds of friendship have strengthened among many neighbors to the point where they function as extended families.

“The crisis has revealed what truly matters,” Ms. Jiménez explains. “Many resources that were once considered private are now willingly shared. Now the question is not ‘What’s mine?’ but rather ‘What do we need together?’”

Two participants of youth groups, Reyes and Ricardo, observe this transformation each week: “Hope comes from seeing unity in action,” they said. “We draw strength from one another. The joy lies in serving—sometimes alongside people we had never met before.”

SOURCE: https://news.bahai.org/story/1799/community-building-spain-enhances-resilience-floods 

Community-Building for Resilience in Hard Times

The Bahá’í efforts around the world to build community can bring spiritual, social, and material benefits to society and can serve as the foundation for a spiritual civilization. One aspect not so often talked about yet is how to build community resilience for hard times, which is becoming in-creasingly important because of the worsening impacts of climate change, such as more severe storms, flooding, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires. This article briefly highlights a few such ex-periences and reflects on their relevance for action in our communities.

Brazil experienced the worst flood in its history last year. Bahá’í friends reported(1) how their community-building efforts contributed to the relief efforts: “A collective sense of belonging, a deeper understanding of the connections between individual and collective well-being, an active approach to problem-solving, close ties between neighboring families and a habit of visiting each other allowed for rapid assessments of a very dynamic situation, identification of needs, dissemi-nation of accurate information, and harboring a sense of hope.”

A recent Bahá’í World News Article—Community-building in Spain enhances resilience to floods—reports about last year’s catastrophic floods in Spain, and how young people who have been en-gaged in Bahá’í community-building endeavors “assisted with clearing debris and supporting af-fected neighborhoods”, how a local Baha’i Center was offered to security personnel responding to the disaster, and how the devastating impacts of loss of life and material possessions have opened human hearts to the essential matters of life.

Of course, communities face different threats. We can assess our local reality and consult about what we can do to prevent or lower the risks. A junior youth group in Tanna, Vanuatu, has done just that. They became aware of the decline of fish and large shells and then proposed to the chiefs a marine protected area. This 13-minute uplifting video explains their successful pro-ject: Tanna: A Study in Leadership and Action.

How can we make our own community more resilient to climate change and other environmental and social problems? There seem to be two major areas of action:

• Build communities with a strong spiritual foundation and capacity for service, so that when disaster hits, all members of the community can respond with unity and effectiveness. The first two stories above, from Brazil and Spain, are examples of that.
• Read the reality of the locality and evaluate the risks, then take precautionary measures. What may be the specific threats to your community? River flooding? Extreme heat? Water scarcity? Food shortage? What can we do now to reduce the threat? The actions of the Tanna community (see previous paragraph) can serve as an example.

Here is a resource to stimulate our thinking along these lines: Community Conversations for Glob-al Solidarity, Part 1: Assessment of Reality – Questions for Local Community Assessment. It is not suggested to consult about the numerous questions. They are intended to stimulate our thoughts to think more broadly and to find the specific vulnerabilities of our own community.

Reference (1) Effects of Community Building on the Approach to A Climate Disaster in Rio Grande Du Sul, Brazil, by Lucas Umpierre Conter, Louisa Yazdani, and André Akhavan

Source: Wilmette Institute June 2025 Newsletter: https://wilmetteinstitute.org/community-building-for-resilience-in-hard-times/ 

Youth Interfaith Summit highlights spiritual dimension of climate action

LONDON — A fresh approach to climate discourse—one that transcends purely technical considerations by integrating moral and spiritual principles—came to the fore at a recent Youth Interfaith Summit in London, encouraging a sense of collective responsibility that spans generations.

The Summit brought together some 60 young people from diverse faith backgrounds to explore the deeper dimensions of climate action.

The summit, organized by the Faith and Belief Forum and the London School of Economics, included discussions facilitated by the UK Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs.

“Climate challenges are often approached primarily as technical problems requiring policy interventions,” stated Maria Pavlou of the Office in her opening remarks at the National Level Workshop of the Summit.

“However,” she continued, “addressing these issues at their root requires recognizing our inherent interconnectedness.”

At the Youth Interfaith Summit in the UK, participants explored how spiritual principles—such as the oneness of humanity—can reframe climate challenges as shared responsibilities grounded in our deep interconnectedness. 

Ms. Pavlou emphasized the Bahá’í principle of the oneness of humanity, referring to Bahá’u’lláh’s metaphor describing humanity as “the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch.”

“The oneness of humanity is not merely a noble ideal—it is a fundamental fact of our existence,” she stated.

Ms. Pavlou explained that such a perspective allows environmental issues—such as frequent winter floods inundating England’s Midlands region, loss of wildlife habitats, and accelerating energy consumption—to be seen not as isolated challenges, but as shared responsibilities reflecting our profound interconnectedness.

Ms. Pavlou noted that youth often embody, in strong measure, such qualities as “idealism, energy, a keen sense of justice, and an earnest pursuit of truth—that are essential for meaningful social transformation.”

Young people from diverse faiths at the Summit explored how moral and spiritual principles can promote effective climate action.

Participants at the workshop explored how young people, when empowered and viewed as active protagonists rather than passive recipients, can effectively promote social change.

“Young people are not problems that need to be solved, but ‘trustees of the community’ with deep longing to play meaningful roles in society,” stated Ms. Pavlou.

Central to discussions was consultation, a principle and method emphasized in Bahá’í teachings as critical for overcoming differences and fostering harmony. Participants recognized that true consultation moves beyond mere dialogue and demands mutual respect and openness especially when confronting difficult emotions or divergent views that discussions on climate change can often stir.

The summit also explored the principle of the harmony of science and religion as a guide for addressing climate change. Science provides indispensable technical knowledge, but the summit highlighted the critical role of spiritual conviction and moral courage in translating knowledge into meaningful action.

One of the conclusions from the discussions was that by testing ideas through concrete action at the grassroots and systematically learning how principles such as justice, consultation, and the oneness of humanity can be applied to climate action, communities generate evidence that can progressively shape public policy, allowing successful approaches to be scaled up and adopted as common practice. This continual flow of knowledge from the local to the national level, participants noted, is indispensable for meeting complex challenges. Reflecting on their experiences, the youth expressed a deepening sense of responsibility, not only toward present circumstances but also toward past and future generations, highlighting the capacity of youth to envision long-term transformation while acting decisively in the present.

“When we recognize ourselves as part of an ever-unfolding story of humanity,” Ms. Pavlou reflected, “we move beyond seeing climate action as merely addressing problems and instead embrace it as fulfilling our spiritual purpose of contributing to the advancement of civilization.”

SOURCE: https://news.bahai.org/story/1797/united-kingdom-youth-interfaith-summit-spiritual-dimension-climate-action