Practise what you preach: a faith-based approach to conservation in Indonesia

Abstract

Faith-based teachings on the environment have been identified as a potentially effective form of conservation outreach but one that remains largely untested. Indonesia contains 10% of the world's tropical rainforests and is the most populous Muslim country. A faith-based approach to conservation could therefore yield significant conservation benefits here. Within Islam several key principles in the Qur'an underpin and outline the role of humans in nature conservation. Here, we report on a Darwin Initiative project component that sought to assess the applicability of Islamic teachings to conservation action in West Sumatra. We developed water-conservation-themed sermons that were delivered by project-trained religious leaders in 10 mosques and nine Islamic boarding schools during the holy month of Ramadan. We conducted entryexit questionnaire surveys to assess levels of concern, awareness and intent to act amongst male (n 5 389) and female (n 5 479) worshippers. The results revealed that greater attention should be paid to raising awareness of the linkages between Islam and conservation rather than on conservation principles alone, which were already adequately understood. This study provides the first insights into the important role that women could play within a faith-based project. Female respondents demonstrated greater knowledge and understanding of Islamic teachings about the environment and the services provided by watershed forests. They were also more likely to contribute to conservation activities, suggesting that future projects should seek to involve this often marginalized stakeholder group fully, as well as provide practical ways for men and women to transform words into action.

Gendered perspectives of ecosystem services: A systematic review

“…Water quality control. Women generally had more knowledge of water quality control, accorded it a higher importance or had a higher WTP for this service in most of the studies that we reviewed (Kisaka and Obi, 2015;Martin-Lopez et al, 2012;McKay et al, 2013;Shen et al, 2015). One study drew the opposite conclusion-that women usually have less (or even negative) WTP for this ecosystem service, possibly because women generally have a lower socioeconomic status than men do in this study area in China (He et al, 2015).…”

“…Water supply. Similar to medicinal products, in most cases women value water supply services more than men or had a higher WTP for this service (Hamann et al, 2015;Kisaka and Obi, 2015;McKay et al, 2013;Paudyal et al, 2015). This may be due to the fact that women and young girls are the main collectors and users of domestic water.…”

“…Water supply In most cases, women perceived stronger importance about/had higher WTP for this ES type (Hamann et al, 2015;Kisaka and Obi, 2015;McKay et al, 2013;Paudyal et al, 2015). This is mostly due to women and young girls acting as the primary stewards of domestic water supply $$$ Others Men had higher WTP for the policies that can preserve pollination services by bees (Narjes and Lippert (2016)) Women's workload regarding water collection had been affected by hydropower development (Buechler et al, 2016) Insufficient data Regulating Extreme events mitigation In most cases, men had more knowledge of/perceived more importance about this ES type (Allendorf and Yang, 2013;Allendorf and Yang, 2017;Ronnback et al, 2007Warren-Rhodes et al, 2011 Two cases show that women gave higher WTP to this ES type (Calvet-Mir et al, 2016;Vivithkeyoonvong and Jourdain, 2017) $##…”

Transformation of Muslim Behaviour towards Sustainable Environment: Perspectives of Non-Governmental Organisations in Klang Valley

“…Moreover, McKay et al (2013) discovered that applying a religious approach to promote environmental awareness among communities is not a new concept. McKay et al (2013) and Fachruddin (2010) elaborated that tauhid (integration), khalifah (guardian), mizan (balance) and fitrah (nature) are amongst the key principles in Islam governing human role in conserving natural resources.…”

“…McKay et al (2013) and Fachruddin (2010) elaborated that tauhid (integration), khalifah (guardian), mizan (balance) and fitrah (nature) are amongst the key principles in Islam governing human role in conserving natural resources. Therefore, McKay et al (2013) believed that better result could be obtained by raising awareness of Islamic teachings on the environment rather than making efforts to raise general awareness on conservation issues. Besides that, Zeeda Fatimah et al (2012) found that religious communities may appear to be motivated by their ethical concerns on the wellbeing of the environment.…”