Religions for Peace brings the commitment, influence, and moral authority of religions to efforts to protect the world’s rainforests and the indigenous peoples that serve as their guardians as a core partner of the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI). In collaboration with our national Interreligious Councils, IRI has five established national platforms where religious leaders can work hand-in-hand with indigenous peoples, governments, civil society organisations, and businesses on actions that protect rainforests. These national platforms – established in five countries containing nearly 70% of the world’s remaining rainforests – are working at national and local levels to pass legislation that protects forests and the human rights of their indigenous protectors, mobilise faith communities for advocacy, facilitate learning on the science behind our spiritual commitment.

At our 10^th World Assembly in 2019, the “Faith for Forests” declaration was adopted by 1,000 representatives of the world’s faith communities. To continuously raise awareness around this crisis, we launched a #ForestFriday campaign where every Friday, we share news and inspiration highlighting the intersection of faiths and forests.

Led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, our “Faiths for Earth” campaign rallied religious believers of many faiths in pressuring political leaders to commit to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.

The petition garnered over 1.8 million signatures from believers around the world.

Religions for Peace and faith-based partners presented the petition to President Hollande in Paris during the climate negotiations. Additionally, Religions for Peace placed op-eds by faith leaders on the moral imperative to fight climate change in leading publications.

Raising-awareness around the dangers of climate change is a large part of the battle to stop it. With this in mind, Religions for Peace worked with religious and scientific experts to create a unique, multi-religious Resource Guide on Climate Change for Religious Communities.

The guide provides a succinct overview of the causes and consequences of climate change and summarizes what the major religious and spiritual traditions teach about care for the environment. More concretely, the guide focuses on the role faith communities can play in slowing down and halting the impact of climate change.