Indonesia

One of our guiding principles is that wherever possible we work with others. Our speciality is Islamic environmental ethics and we try to stay within the boundaries of this subject and leave the technical aspects of a project to those who know about these matters. Thus any project we engage in needs to have an Islamic ethical basis to it and also as a corollary we leave the technical aspects of a project to experts with whom we work closely like the ground breaking Zanzibar project you will see below. We also work with universities – as on this following occasion – who are giving this burgeoning subject academic credibility.

The Darwin Initiative project, Integrating Religion within Conservation: Islamic Beliefs and Sumatran Forest Management, has been a groundbreaking endeavour in many ways and IFEES is privileged to have partnered in this venture implemented by the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE). Collaborative ventures between secular and faith-based organizations in the field of environmental ethics, although not a new phenomenon, are still rare. Given the urgent nature of environmental concerns, these partnerships are of great value for two reasons. The first is that it opens doors to a huge body of people who by and large are marginalised in the current environmental discourse. The second is that the main focus on ethical messages that are faith-based, in this case Islam and their application by a particular community of Muslims in the Islamic world can and has been known to produce positive results. In this sense, the Darwin Initiative is setting a benchmark for the future evolution of this work, particularly in regions where there are large Muslim populations.*

For a summary of the project see Islamic Beliefs and Sumatran Forest Management in EcoIslam 7

For a free download of the project book click here

For project details click here

*Fazlun Khalid in Foreword to Integrating Religion within Conservation: Islamic Beliefs and Sumatran Forest Management.