Letter from the President (includes working group SURVEY)
Ashley Massey Marks
SCB RCB Letter from the President
October 14, 2019
Dear Members of the Religion and Conservation Biology Working Group:
Welcome to the start of a new phase of the RCB Working Group! My name is Chantal Elkin and I am the new President of the working group.
The board has a lot of exciting ideas to create a truly practical, inspiring, and collaborative working group, but we want to hear what is important to YOU and how the working group can assist you in your work. Please complete this brief Google Forms SURVEY by October 28th.
In July at the International Congress on Conservation Biology in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, our working group screened a 6-minute film, which I worked on with VP Ashley Massey Marks, and was made possible by the generous support of donors through the RCB and IUCN CEESP. The film serves as a brief introduction to the field of culture, spirituality and conservation. Please share it widely!
Short Film on Culture, Spirituality and Conservation (6 minutes)
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/349593871
YouTube: https://youtu.be/eM3SXHTJ7_k
At the ICCB we also held the first ever plenary featuring faith representatives at the SCB. The plenary, “Faith and Conservation in Dialogue”, featured four global faith leaders–a Catholic leader from the Vatican, a Nepalese Tibetan Buddhist Abbot, the head of the Environment Programme at Indonesia’s National Islamic Council, and a Malaysian Indigenous priestess. They spoke in conversation, chaired by RCB member Jame Schaefer, about the inspiring ways they are protecting their environments as an expression of the core beliefs and values of their traditions.
Check out highlights from the ICCB here:
RCB Twitter page: https://twitter.com/ReligionConBio
RCB website: https://conbio.org/groups/working-groups/religion-and-conservation-biology
Plenary: https://vimeo.com/361797470. Pay to view: email membe...@conbio.org to complete transaction of $25 to SCB.
Finally, I’d like to introduce the Executive Committee of your new RCB board!
President Chantal Elkin: I recently joined WWF as the head of a new programme on Beliefs & Values, which looks across WWF’s global network to share experiences and best practices within the WWF global network on conservation approaches that include religious, spiritual, Indigenous and cultural partners and approaches. I am also involved with a new centre being established called the International Network on Conservation and Religion (INCR), which will act as a knowledge and resource hub on all things related to conservation and religion. Prior to joining WWF in July, I was Director of the Wildlife Programme at the UK-based NGO the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), and ran programmes bringing together faith and conservation partners in Asia. I was with Conservation International for eight years as the Washington-based Manager of the Indo-Burma program and then as Director of CI’s Wildlife Trade program, focusing on the illegal trade in Asia. I hold two Master’s degrees from the University of London, the first in Environment and Development in Southeast Asia and the second on Buddhism and conservation. Prior to working with CI, I co-authored the 1998 publication, “Logging Burma’s Frontier Forests: Resources and the Regime” for the World Resources Institute. I am also the author of the chapter, Strengthening Forest Conservation through the Buddhist Sangha, in the publication, Cambodia’s Contested Forest Domain (2013).
Vice President Ashley Massey Marks: Ashley is a member of the Science Faculty of a small Catholic independent all-girls school in Rye, New York, USA, and serves as Co-Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) Theme on Culture, Spirituality and Conservation. Her doctoral research in Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford focused on sacred forests on a landscape scale in Malaysia Borneo, northern Ethiopia, the Gambia, and Japan. As the Research Administrator for the Mapping the Sacred project, Ashley collaborated with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) to develop an online spatial database of sacred natural sites around the world. Previously she studied Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management at Oxford and worked in rural Guinea and the Gambia, West Africa, for two years as an agroforestry and biodiversity conservation extensionist in the US Peace Corps. As an Environmental Studies major at Dartmouth College, she researched local perceptions of conservation in and around Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa.
Secretary Alex Greene: Alex Greene is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work employs the techniques and theory of anthropology, botany, ecology and religious studies to examine the diversity of ways that human systems are interdependent with environmental systems. Alex’s particular interests include traditional knowledge, spiritual ecology and multispecies ethnography, and he has a strong background in field botany, ornithology and environmental education. His work focuses on the culture and ecology of south and southeast Asia, where he has conducted research on traditional plant use in Viet Nam, elephant medicine in northern Thailand and sacred forests in far western Nepal. He believes that sound research can build the relationships and lay the groundwork that lead to collaborative sustainable development projects which empower local communities to improve their welfare while also protecting the ecological systems and many lives that help constitute our earth and home.
Treasurer Ken Kitatani: Rev. Ken Kitatani is the Executive Director of Forum 21 Institute, a multidisciplinary research association for catalyzing positive, integrative solutions and actions for human and environmental upliftment. Forum 21 works on all levels of society with a specific interest in three areas: (1) promoting sustainable development and uniting NGO’s of the United Nations to support the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals and their implementation; (2) promoting eco-spirituality, eco-ministry, and eco-justice and supporting eco-ministry as an authentic and necessary form of service within the faith, interfaith, and interspiritual communities; and (3) sponsoring education and training programs on the local, regional, state, national, and international levels that deepen and broaden constituencies to foster sustainable practices and leverage sustainability policies at all levels. Ken is an ordained minister of Sukyo Mahikari Centers for Spiritual Development and currently serves as the Manager of the North American Regional Headquarters. Rev. Kitatani is the Principal Representative of the Sukyo Mahikari United Nations NGO in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. He also serves as the Chair of the UN NGO Committee of Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns and Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the Center for Earth Ethics of Union Theological Seminary. Ken graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in East Asian Studies and pursued his graduate studies at Columbia University before enrolling in the seminary program of Sukyo Mahikari International.
Looking forward to engaging with you all soon!
With warm thanks,
Chantal
David Johns
FYI; as much or more about class than religion
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Schaefer, Jame
Thanks, Ashley, for this e-mail and the good news that the RCBWG Board is organizing and may once again generate some substantive initiatives reflecting the working group’s mission. While questing for something new to do, how are you attending to pending initiatives? Awaiting action is the document Guidelines for Interacting with Faith-based Leaders and Communities (attached) submitted to the RCBWG Board in February 2018 after nearly three years of research and writing initiated by an earlier Board. When will the new RCBWG Board be advancing the document to the SCB BOG?
Best wishes,
Jame
From: rcb...@conbio.org <rcb...@conbio.org> On Behalf Of
Ashley Massey Marks
Sent: Monday, October 14, 2019 10:54 AM
To: RCB Working Group List <RCB...@conbio.org>
Subject: {RCB Working Group List} Letter from the President (includes working group SURVEY)
SCB RCB Letter from the President
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