In an article for BBC Earth, DICE alumna Niki Rust highlights the fact that eight out of ten people around the world consider themselves religious. Whilst in many countries religion is not as dominant as it once was, it still has a huge influence on us.
But what does that mean for the environmental movement? Does a belief in God or the supernatural make people more or less likely to take care of animals and the environment?
Drawing on a wide-range of sources, including DICE alumna Emma Shepheard-Walwyn’s PhD thesis, Niki articulates that conflicts arising in the perception of protected areas and endangered species depend on not whether a person is religious, but rather the form their religion takes, be it different branches of a single faith or level of devotion to it. She argues that conservationists must frame their messages differently depending on their audience, and need to integrate their ideas into religious thinking.
Yet conservationists and religious leaders have grown apart, mostly because the former have ignored the opinions of religious communities because of a false belief that religion and science do not mix. Niki highlights some groups that are trying to bridge the gap, including The Alliance for Religions and Conservation (ARC), a secular body that helps faith leaders to create environmental programmes based on their faith’s core beliefs and practices, and the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES), an organisation that was a cornerstone in the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change.
Niki provides tentative evidence that this sort of approach can work. A 2013 study in Indonesia by one of our honorary research associates, Jeanne McKay, showed that incorporating conservation messages into Islamic sermons increased both public awareness and levels of concern. Beyond that, the ARC argues that conservationists can learn a lot from religion about how to engage people and build support. After all, religions are famously good at garnering lots of followers all devoted to a common cause, and telling compelling stories that can inspire and inform. Crucially, they also tend to celebrate what we already have rather than focusing on what we have lost.
In the words of McKay, when so many conservation stories confront their audience with narratives of doom and gloom, “using faith-based approaches can prove to be a positive way forward and has the potential to gain far-reaching benefits rather than staying confined to a conventionally science-based approach.”
The full article can be read here.