by Mary Evelyn Tucker
Religious and environmental leaders are using the symbolic, scriptural, ritual, and ethical dimensions of religious traditions that support nature to inspire environmental activism and protection around the world. This emerging alliance of religion and ecology assumes that environmental protection can be promoted by activating a sense of the earth's sacred qualities.
There are numerous examples of this, ranging from Buddhist monks who ordain trees in Thailand to prevent their destruction, to Hindu communities in India that encourage water conservation and tree planting, to indigenous groups in Latin America and the South Pacific that organize to protect their forests and homelands. A remarkable example of interreligious cooperation around reforestation is ZIRRCON (Zimbabwean Institute of Religious Research and Ecological Conservation), which brings together Shosoni tribes with Dutch Reformed Christian Churches to plant over one million trees annually.
