9. The role of religion in conservation

Abstract

The World Conservation Strategy is essentially a mancentred technical document which carries a great and largely unstated moral issue of restraint for the long-term common good in the face of exploitation of natural resources for short-term gain by a privileged few. Yet no effort has been made to have the Strategy recognized and adopted by the world religions. Without this, such documents fail to move the spirit of man to new efforts for rational use of resources for the good of all mankind and become an end in themselves without benefit to poor people. The Strategy also neglects the problem of human population growth withinter alia its immense religious significance. The great aim of any world strategy is that man should live in ‘dignity and in harmony with God, the source of all life’ (Salim, 1981).