Multi-faith environment meeting in Bogor

	Bogor is on the slopes of Mount Salak on the island of Java, 50 kilometres south of the capital city Jakarta.

This was the first multi-faith meeting on the environment in Indonesia. It was organised by ARC, World Bank and LIPI (Indonesian Institute of Sciences), and held at Bogor on 18th December 2002. Delegates came from Buddhism, Christianity (Protestant and Catholics), Confucianism/Taoism, Hinduism and Islam. Representatives from conservation NGOs, a former Minister for the Environment and scientists from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) joined World bank and ARC staff in the historic setting of the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss practical faith based projects in Indonesia, in particular, Hindu, Christian and Muslim. Examples included: Hindu projects in Bali related to pest control, and Muslim projects in rural areas appointing communities as guardians of each hill or mountain.

The Indonesian Communion of Churches was strongly represented at the meeting. As a result, the Communion of Churches has expressed the desire for such collaboration to be developed in the future and informal links have been established, particularly with Muslim organisations and with LIPI.