LONDON -- HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, will be the keynote speaker at the 1994 World Forestry Charter Gathering, to be held 28 July at the Palace of St. James.
The 1994 Gathering will focus on the Forest Principles, adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit, and their implications for the peoples and nations of the planet, examining whether the Principles go far enough towards the kind of comprehensive global framework under which sustainable forestry stewardship can be assured.
The Gathering is organized by the International Tree Foundation and the Bahá'í International Community, and sponsored by TAMOIL, the Italian petroleum company. It is supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). TAMOIL has been recognized by WWF as a leader in the oil industry for its environmental policies.
Also addressing the gathering, which will bring together diplomatic and environmental representatives from more than 80 countries, will be Madam Rúhíyyih Rabbání, a leading figure in the Bahá'í International Community who is heavily engaged in the field of environmental education.
"In bringing together a constellation of royal, diplomatic and religious figures of international prominence at the Palace of St. James, which is normally reserved for state functions, the 1994 World Forestry Charter Gathering will highlight the new integration of interests and concerns being brought to bear on the environmental crisis," said Lawrence Arturo, director of Bahá'í International Community's Office of the Environment.
"It will reflect the growing view that the world's ecosystems -- and particularly our forests -- represent a common heritage for all humanity and that unprecedented levels of international cooperation, based on unity and justice, must be sought if the world's forests are to be preserved," Mr. Arturo added.
First held by Dr. Richard St. Barbe Baker in the 1950s and 1960s, the World Forestry Charter Gatherings represent a pioneering global environmental initiative. Dr. Baker, a renowned ecologist who was also a Bahá'í, brought together diplomats to the Court of St. James discuss the state of the world's forests in the first such meetings of their kind.
In 1989, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth
of Dr. Baker, the Bahá'í International Community
revived the Gathering. The 1994 event represents the second in
the new series of Gatherings.