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13th
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
INTERNATIONAL
ENVIRONMENT FORUM
Washington, D.C. , 14 August 2009
Annual
report
The annual report (Annex 2) was then presented by Dahl and Adriance and approved by the members.
Election
of the Governing Board
The election of the Governing Board for 2009-2010 then took place with
Tahirih Naylor and Emily Firth serving as tellers. There were 7
absentee ballots by e-mail and 16 voting in person for a total of 23
voting. The election results were as follows: Peter Adriance,
Arthur Dahl, Duncan Hanks, Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, Victoria
Thoresen, Diana Cartwright, Emily Firth.
Newly elected board members
Emily Firth and Diana Cartwright
Consultation
on activities and priorities for the coming year
Consultation on activities and priorities for the coming year then took place. General points discussed:
• The website is a most valuable resource, but it would be helpful
to have the means to be able to discuss with others ideas for projects,
etc. (Perhaps a Wiki?) Board meetings would benefit from such a format
as well. New members don’t have much of a sense of what members
are doing. Could we have an email discussion list for members working
in Africa, for instance? Something should be done to spur
communications.
• The Wilmette Institute Course on sustainable development is a
great contribution by IEF members. Could more be done to hold courses
at Baha’i schools and perhaps a curriculum made available?
• The effort to legally register the organization is praiseworthy.
Unfortunately it’s often expensive to do so. To be legally
registered somewhere (rather than strictly virtual, which has worked
for 13 years) would be helpful for accreditation purposes at some
events, but BIC is willing to include IEF members on its delegations
for now.
• Opportunities to integrate environment into local activities
would be a helpful theme for a future meeting. The IEF aims to serve as
a resource but doesn’t drive community agendas. We can try to
provide tools to the grassroots. PERL information should be made
available through the IEF website to increase educational resources of
the community. We could hold a reflection gathering on local efforts,
learn from each other, gain tools or skills. IEF needs materials from
local communities as well, to share with others.
Other
business
• An Interfaith Study Course on climate change was made available
to IEF by Christine Mueller. It will be posted on the website after
review and approval by the board.
• Member Julie Christ, Cedar Hills, UT (USA) volunteered to write the newsletter.
The General Assembly was adjourned at 19:30.
AGENDA 13th General Assembly of the
International Environment Forum
Washington D.C., USA, 14 August 2009
1. Opening of the General Assembly
2. Introduction of members present
3. Election of officers of the General Assembly
4. Approval of the agenda
5. Presentation, consultation and approval of the annual report (Annex 2)
6. Election of the Governing Board
7. Consultation on activities and priorities for the coming year
such as: educational activities, how to engage members, activities on climate change, engaging with sustainable consumption (as the upcoming theme of the Commission on Sustainable Development and membership in PERL), collaboration with various partner organisations and networks, and future IEF conferences.
8. Other business
9. Closing of the General Assembly
TWELFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FORUM
The 12th Annual Conference of the IEF was organised in partnership with the European Baha’i Business Forum
(EBBF) at de Poort in the Netherlands 18-21 September 2008. Over 160
participants took part while 39 others from around the world took part
through the e-conference, received reports of the sessions and access
to video clips of the main presentations at http://www.youtube.com/EBBFvideo
and participated using a web-blog facilitated again by Judith Golova.
The videoclips are still available online and have been viewed between
20-60 times. The theme was “Growth or Sustainability? Defining,
Measuring and Achieving Prosperity” and presentations followed a
sub-theme per day, first identifying the sustainability challenges
linked to economic growth, then looking at alternative ideals of human
prosperity and finally discussing possible pathways towards those
ideals. CEOs, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, scientists and citizens
learned from each other, while keynoters and panellists provided food
for thought and offered a new way forward towards the broader vision of
"enhancing the well-being and prosperity of humankind". The keynotes
were balanced with consultation and workshops dedicated to addressing
participants own issues, questions and ideas, to bridge the gap between
world views and what happens on Monday morning at work. The program
also included a nature walk with quiz questions for participants to
both enjoy the beautiful Dutch woodlands and get challenged on their
knowledge about how to make sustainable choices in everyday life.
12TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The 12th General Assembly was held on 20
September 2008. The General Assembly was attended by 15 members and
four guests. After a round of introductions of all present, two tellers
were appointed. Officers of the General Assembly were elected by secret
ballot, with Arthur Dahl elected as chair and Sylvia Karlsson as
secretary. The draft agenda was approved and as first item the annual
report was presented, discussed and approved. There were 20 votes cast
for the IEF Board: 6 via email and 14 in person and the following
governing board members were elected: Arthur Dahl, Sylvia Karlsson,
Victoria Thoresen, Irma Allen, Peter Adriance, Duncan Hanks and Charles
Boyle. In the ensuing consultation concrete proposals were given such
as: creating a calendar of events that IEF members are taking part in
on the IEF website; setting up a project site on the IEF website which
could mirror the EBBF blog with projects which members are doing; the
idea of regional issue monitors; and finding ways to have interns
helping to support the IEF Secretariat. Possibilities to engage with
the UN climate negotiations were also explored.
GOVERNING BOARD
The Board has had two electronic meetings during the year: 14 November
-25 December 2008 and 28 June -1 August 2009, but also a number of
between meeting consultations on urgent issues such as conference
planning etc. All Board members participated in both meetings. At its
first electronic meeting the Board elected Arthur Dahl as President and
Sylvia Karlsson as General-Secretary.
MENTORING
No specific activity has been reported to the Board on mentoring
younger members with their career choices during this year, although
this continues on an informal basis.
CORRESPONDENCE
There have been about 100 incoming emails during the year and about 100
outgoing. This does not include correspondence on specific issues such
as planning the conference and the internal emails among the Board
members. Problems with IEF email host bcca may unfortunately have led
to many emails not reaching the General Secretary and the Board has
decided to move to another provider as soon as possible. The Secretary
has also been quite behind in handling correspondence particularly the
second part of the year.
LEGAL REGISTRATION
The Board has during the year taken a decision to move towards legal
registration of the IEF and have started to explore the possibilities
of doing this in Geneva, Switzerland, where the President resides.
13TH IEF ANNUAL CONFERENCE
During the year the Board members from North America, Peter Adriance and Duncan Hanks, took the lead in planning the 13th annual conference
which will be held as part of the annual meeting of the Association for
Baha’i Studies - North America on 13-16 August 2009 in Washington
D.C. The overarching theme for the conference is
“Environments”. It has become a tradition to take turns
between North America and Europe for the annual conferences and very
preliminary discussions on the possibility of holding the conference in
2010 in Paris have started. The Board would of course welcome having
the conference on other continents but it would require building a
broader membership base there first or establishing a strong
partnership with another local organization.
ISSUE MONITORS
Issue monitors have been Mark Griffin for water issues and Michael
Richards for forests but further appointments await finding a willing
member who can serve as coordinator of the issue monitors; help them
get started, remind them to send reports and news items to the
newsletter and the Board etc.
THE CONSUMER CITIZENSHIP NETWORK AND PERL
Since 2005, the IEF has been a member of the Consumer Citizenship Network
(CCN), a thematic network of 124 institutions from 29 countries funded
by the European Union in cooperation with UNESCO, UNEP and
international citizenship and consumer organizations. It is an
interdisciplinary network of educators who have a common interest in
consumer citizenship. The Sixth CCN Conference was held in Berlin,
Germany, on 23-24 March 2009 with over 200 participants, on the theme
"Making a difference: putting consumer citizenship into action".
Victoria Thoresen, coordinator of the network, made the opening
presentation on "Who dares to differ?" Arthur Dahl spoke on "The
financial crisis and consumer citizenship". The CCN will complete its
second three-year funding cycle in October 2009. The extensive results
of the project are being posted on the CCN web site (http://www.hihm.no/concit/).
They will be of great use to teachers, schools and community groups
involved in consumer education and education for sustainable
development.
The successor to CCN will be international in scope: the Partnership
for Education and research for Responsible Living (PERL). UNEP has
promised to sponsor PERL in part; UNESCO and OECD have endorsed the
project and the European Union has again granted significant funding.
It is still early enough in the formation of the project to include a
sub-project that IEF might suggest. Since PERL will be more global than
CCN, there is an opportunity for the IEF to come with suggestions of
more international scope. PERL will also be building up resources in
Africa and South America and any IEF members in those areas who might
be interested in being a part of PERL should notify the board.
UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA
The Advanced Studies course in Sustainable Development at the
University of Geneva, of which IEF is a co-sponsor, continues to be
held each year between October and June (http://www.unige.ch/ecohum/formcont/CertFCDD09.html). Arthur Dahl is on the scientific
committee and teaches in several modules. The IEF web site and
materials are also used in the UNEP/University of Geneva/Graduate
Institute Certificate of Advanced Studies in Environmental Diplomacy
coordinated by Arthur Dahl. (http://www.unige.ch/formcont/environmentaldiplomacy/).
EBBF
The collaboration with the European Baha’i Business Forum (EBBF) reached its highest level yet with the 12th Annual Conference being organized jointly with them. This has subsequently led to further interaction between the two organizations.
VALUES-BASED INDICATORS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Values based indicators was a theme for the joint EBBF/IEF conference
in 2008, with a preconference workshop on values-based indicators of
education for sustainable development. The EBBF is a partner in a
European research project on this theme (http://www.esdinds.eu/),
and Arthur Dahl is a senior advisor. Another workshop is planned
back-to-back with the 2009 Annual Conference. The IEF could be
interested in testing some of the indicators later in the project.
ORLANDO SEMINAR 2008
At the Baha'i Conference on Social and Economic Development in the
Americas, in Orlando, Florida, in December 2008, the preconference
seminar organized by Peter Adriance and Steve Karnik was all open space
in format and very effective. The plenary full-morning panel on Climate
Change, chaired by an IEF board member (Peter Adriance) and including
three IEF members (Arthur Dahl, Halldor Thorgeirsson and Duncan Hanks)
and Tahirih Naylor-Thimm of the Baha'i International Community
presenting the science, the politics, the BIC response and the
national-local response to the IEF conference in Ottawa, was extremely
well received. It was all recorded, and mp3 audio recordings and
presentations are available on the IEF web site (http://www.bcca.org/ief/el/elpresent.htm#ClimateChange).
CSD 2009
Several members and two Board members of the International Environment
Forum attended the sixteenth session of the United Nations Commission
on Sustainable Development (CSD-16).
WILMETTE INSTITUTE
The Wilmette Institute e-learning course on Sustainable Development co-sponsored by IEF will be held again from October 2009 until January 2010.
ACTIVITIES RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change has now reached the top of the international agenda, so
the IEF is giving this issue special attention, building on its
activities over several years (http://www.bcca.org/ief/climate.htm). The Baha'i International Community
has been active on climate ethics at the United Nations, and issued a
paper on "Seizing the Opportunity: Redefining the Challenge of Climate
Change" in December 2008 (http://www.bcca.org/ief/bic/biccc08.htm).
The BIC is participating with other major religions in drafting 7-year
plans of action on climate change, to be launched in November 2009. The
IEF has helped to contribute to the process, and is preparing
supporting materials.
Two IEF members presented papers at the Sixth International Conference on Ethics and Environmental Policies,
Padova, Italy, 23-25 October 2008, on the theme Ethics and Climate
Change: Scenarios for Justice and Sustainability. Joachim Monkelbaan
gave a paper on "Promoting a Discourse on How Values Drive the
Transition to a Sustainable Economy in China, Europe and Elsewhere".
Arthur Dahl's paper was on "Science and Religion in the Climate Change
Debate: Case Study of the Baha'i Community". The case study included a
description of IEF activities on this topic (http://www.bcca.org/ief/doc/ddahl08c.htm).
Over a hundred participants took part in the discussions and workshops,
and a final document was prepared summarizing the conclusions of the
conference.
The Archbishop of Sweden convened an Interfaith Climate Summit in
Uppsala, Sweden, on 28-29 November 2008. IEF member Paul Ojermark and
our General-Secretary Sylvia Karlsson led a seminar/workshop during the
summit. More information is available at the summit web site: http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/default.aspx?di=143415.
At the 14th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change
held in early December 2008 a number of IEF members attended (at least
eight), most of them in their professional capacity and two as members
of the delegation of the BIC. It shows that we have quite some
knowledge among IEF members on the climate process which can be tapped
into in coming years.
Sylvia Karlsson and Arthur Dahl attended the International Climate Change Science Conference in Copenhagen 10-12 March 2009 (http://www.climatecongress.ku.dk).
Sylvia spoke on "Transforming institutions that do not exist -the
(im)possible task for global energy governance?", highlighting the
difficulty of managing climate change without simultaneously managing
energy issues, and the lack of global mechanisms for energy governance.
Arthur Dahl's poster was on "The response to climate change from the
Baha'i community", presenting the results of IEF and BIC conferences
and events on climate change (http://www.bcca.org/ief/doc/ddahl09a.htm).
The congress brought together 2,200 scientists to provide the latest
scientific background for the Conference of the Parties of the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change, meeting in Copenhagen in
December 2009. There is a short report with pictures on the News of
Members section of the IEF web site.
Three IEF members, Nigel Jollands, Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen and Larry
Staudt, having shared an interest in energy issues and the contributing
to the climate change discussions made an initial attempt to write a
scientific paper together. The paper, with the title “Global
Energy Policy: Transforming Governance for the Transition to a
Sustainable Energy Future” was presented at the 2009 International Energy Workshop
in Venice in mid June and received a positive response. They will
continue to improve it and present in other fora. Members who are
interested in the topic are welcome to ask for a copy to provide
feedback, just contact the IEF secretariat.
There are plans for the IEF to be strongly represented at the UN Climate Change Conference
(COP15) in Copenhagen in December 2009. A number of members, just as in
Poznan, will be there in their professional capacity, but have also
made links to NGO platforms where opportunities may arise for giving
talks and extensive networking. Several members will again be part of
the BIC delegation. The Board will continue to consult on the possible
type and content of the contributions we can give. The process will
also not end in Copenhagen, rather that is the start of quite a long
journey of further negotiations and particularly living up to the
commitments at home where all of us can play constructive roles.
IEF REPRESENTATION AT OTHER EVENTS
RECONCILIATION AND RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN THE BALKANS
Montenegro, 30 October-1 November 2008
The European Center for Peace and Development, affiliated with the UN
University for Peace and based in Belgrade, organized a conference on
peace and reconciliation in the Balkans in Milocer, Montenegro, 30
October-1 November 2008. The conference was opened by the Prime
Minister of Montenegro and was attended by political, religious and
academic personalities from all the Balkan countries including the
Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church and senior mullahs. IEF President
Arthur Dahl spoke on the environment as a force for peace.
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP IN SARAJEVO MAY 2009
Laurent Mesbah took part in the International Workshop on Integrated
Transboundary Water Resources Management in Southeastern Europe in
Sarajevo, 18-20 May 2009: http://www.unece.org/env/water/meetings/Sarajevo_workshop.htm.
He went on behalf of IEF since he could not represent the organization
he works for, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE). The conference sponsored by UNECE and RCC was promoting cross
border cooperation in South Eastern Europe on water resources
management in line with the analysis and recommendations of the thesis
Laurent had recently completed for the University of Geneva Certificate
of Advanced Studies in Environmental Diplomacy.
LECTURES
Victoria Thoresen has been involved as speaker and workshop coordinator
in the following events: The OECD international conference 24 October
2008 on sustainable consumption; the UNESCO Conference in Bordeaux,
France on Education for Sustainable Development for francophile regions
(including French speaking Africa and Asia); and the UNEP Mediterranean
Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption in Barcelona. She
has also coordinated a workshop at the UNESCO "World Conference on
Education for Sustainable Development Moving into the second half of
the UN Decade" in Bonn, Germany, on 31 March-2 April 2009.
MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS
In September 2008 there were 215 members from 57 countries and
territories. On 2 August 2009 there were 230 members from 54 countries
and territories The number of members thus increased this year by 7
percent. Below is a list of membership by country.
DATABASE
The database is continuously handled very efficiently by Judith Golova.
MEMBER WINS INTERFAITH AWARD
IEF board member, Peter Adriance, was awarded the Fifth Annual Bridge
Builders’ Award by the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan
Washington (D.C.) on 1 June 2009 for his ‘passionate commitment
to inter-religious care of the earth’. Prior to the award
ceremony, he participated in a round-table discussion with three other
awardees of Buddhist, Jewish and Christian affiliations discussing the
fundamental values and scriptures that inspire the environmental ideals
of their respective faiths. Adriance has served as the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States’ NGO
Liaison for Sustainable Development since 1990. Read more at: http://www.ifcmw.org/Default.asp?page=bridgebuilder5.
INTERNS
Taking up a suggestion from the 2008 General Assembly the Board has
started to develop a framework for inviting interns for a few months
each to support the IEF and particularly its Secretariat with expanding
its activities. The BIC has generously offered to host interns in their
premises in New York, and it is also possible for interns to work from
home, wherever they live in the world, as long as they have good
internet access. The Board has developed a list of action items which
interns could work on and the General Secretary will in most cases be
the liaison and supervisor. One of our IEF members residing in Albania,
Jeff Timms, has become our first part-time intern and is e.g. helping
with the preparations for the 2009 IEF conference in Washington D.C.
NEWSLETTER
LEAVES is only distributed to members and associates but everyone can
access it on the IEF web site. Unfortunately there has not been a
single issue distributed during this year, members have instead
received direct emails with conference announcements etc. The website
is also continuously updated with these and news from members etc. A
new format and working team is needed for the newsletter and the search
for volunteers and interns is ongoing.
IEF WEB SITE
The IEF web site (http://www.bcca.org/ief)
is a major resource both for IEF members and many outside IEF. Updates
on IEF activities are posted regularly, and recordings and other
materials from the IEF conferences are always available through the
site. More educational materials on environment and sustainability are
being added all the time. During the year the work has started to
reformat the website and move it to another host since we need more
space and functions on it. Members are welcome to submit material for
possible publication on the website.
CONCLUSIONS
The IEF is slowly but steadily building a reputation for professional
competence at the interface between science and ethics that is
increasing its impact in the international discourse on the directions
for future society. It collaborates closely with the Baha'i
International Community and other partners in its work to improve
environmental management and sustainability based on spiritual
principles, and this will bring increasing responsibilities in the
years ahead. The main challenge now is for more of its members to
support IEF with their time and experience in service to humanity so
that it can extend its reach and activities even further in response to
the critical needs of humanity.
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Last updated 10 September 2009
