What is ARC?
ARC is a secular body that helps the world's major faiths develop environmental programmes based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices.
Why work with the faiths?
The faiths are the oldest human organisations on the planet and together make up the biggest element of civil society today.
Recent News:
June 27, 2019
ARC has closed after 23 years
ARC has closed after 23 exciting years brokering links between the world's major faiths and organisations working on environment programmes. We have made this decision for the best of reasons: we have done what we set out to do. THIS WEBSITE IS NOW ARCHIVED.
June 26, 2019
Faithinvest launched
As part of ARC's legacy a new faith-consistent investment alliance is born in 2019. It is called FaithInvest.
June 24, 2022
Beliefs and Values Programme at WWF
As part of ARC’s legacy, in 2019 WWF launched a Beliefs & Values Programme which will have a huge impact on wildlife and landscape protection around the world
June 23, 2019
Create your long term Faith Plan to protect the environment
The Faith Plans are a response to the triple crises of climate change, ecological devastation and the impact of Covid-19 on national commitments around the SDGs. Join the movement here.
June 22, 2019
Access ARC's extensive website archive of news about religion and conservation
There are nearly 1000 news stories and features, plus numerous project pages. Here's a guide to finding them.
June 13, 2019
Letter of thanks from Prince Philip to MOA-International
HRH Prince Philip, on behalf of ARC, sent a warm personal letter to MOA International in Japan, thanking them for standing beside us for so long.
May 7, 2019
The ARC archive donated to the University of Bath
The ARC collection of archival material and books has now been donated to the University of Bath
May 6, 2019
The story of the Indonesian Muslim Conservation Movement
It was 1991. Fachruddin Mangunjaya was in his early 20s and had just started his first conservation job with WWF-Indonesia. He was looking through a filing cabinet for some papers when the label on a folder caught his eye. It said “Religions and Conservation.”
November 27, 2018
Prince Philip's environmental sermon for Advent
"Christians need to use the annual celebration of the birth of our Lord as an inspiration to become better and more considerate guardians of His Creation." This sermon was given at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1988.
September 4, 2018
Daoist eco plan bans rhino horn, ivory; addresses mercy release crisis
No rhino horn. No ivory. No killing pangolins. An important new environmental plan drafted by Chinese Daoist leaders includes guidelines that Chinese medicine should never use endangered animal parts.
May 12, 2018
News from the 8th World Sikh Environment Day 2018
We've just heard from our friends at EcoSikh that the Eighth World Sikh Environment Day was the biggest ever.
It was celebrated by 5,100 Sikh Gurdwaras, institutions, schools and communities across India and all over the world on March 14, more than any other years since the beginning of celebration in 2011.
April 11, 2018
Monks Community Forest is part of important new wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia
The Cambodian government last week created a new wildlife sanctuary covering more than 30,000 hectares in Oddar Meanchey province. It includes the Sang Rukhavoan community forest, led by Venerable Bun Saluth and supported by ARC.
Question: Who were the first environmental campaigners?
Find out the answer.
Prince Philip on Creation
"If you believe in God…
then you should feel a responsibility to care for His Creation"…
ARC's founder gives a rare interview.
UN Secretary-General
The world's faith communities occupy "a unique position in discussions on the fate
of our planet and the accelerating impacts of climate change… You can - and
do - inspire people to change"…
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Windsor Celebration,
November 2009
Key ARC initiatives
FaithInvest is an international charitable foundation, stemming from ARC's initial work, that assists faith groups to invest in line with their values. Learn more
ARC has been working with religions in China, especially the Daoists, for two decades on how to solve some of the country's huge environmental issues
ARC links faiths and secular organisations to work together to protect endangered wildlife. The programme has fed into the WWF Beliefs & Values programme set up after 2019 as a legacy of ARC.
ARC's programme on climate change included Stories of the Stranger, a retelling of stories (from many traditions) about generosity to strangers and migrants.
Children and young people play an important role in getting good things to happen.
Where we think of land as sacred, we will often try harder to protect it. And many regions and places are sacred. This programme worked with different communities around the world.
This major programme, which continues with FaithInvest, involved faith communities looking at seven key areas of their outreach, assessing what they could do better, and doing it. Learn more
For other programmes, see Projects