Posted on June, 05 2024

5th June, 2024, Kathmandu: The Nepal Buddhists' Faith Plan for Environment 2024–2034 was launched today marking the World Environment Day. The first ever Faith Plan from Nepal aims to mobilize Buddha’s teachings to save the environment and all sentient beings and looks towards a future where humans live in harmony with nature. 

The 10 Year Faith Plan was launched by the Nepal Buddhist Federation, Buddhist leaders of Nepal and the Country Representative of WWF Nepal, Dr. Ghana Shyam Gurung in the presence of nearly 300 participants including mostly Buddhist leaders. 

Throughout Buddha’s life, many important turning points were associated with nature – from His birth under a Sal tree to His enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. Over generations, Buddhist communities continued to follow the teachings of Lord Buddha, and developed strong ties to nature. The practices of environmentalism are embedded in Buddhist philosophy and teachings and have been practiced by individual Buddhist leaders and followers around the world, as well as in Nepal, for generations. 

Today, the survival of the entire humanity is threatened by the triple planetary crises – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. The need for the revival of Buddhist values now is greater than ever, as it addresses the triple threats and emphasizes the positive contribution of each one of us, however small- will help. 

This Faith Plan focuses on environmental issues affecting communities of Nepal and attempts to bring together entire Buddhist community to collectively work towards practical solutions embedding Buddhism values. The Seven Commitments mentioned in the Faith Plan aim to bring about a sea of change by encouraging millions of followers towards increasing conservation awareness, biodiversity conservation, securing habitats, land restoration, reducing pollution, reviving, and contemporizing traditional knowledge, and ensuring individual commitments for little lifestyle changes. 

 Dr. Ghana Shyam Gurung also said “To bring about change we need to tackle the triple threats facing our world today, we need wider partnerships with diverse stakeholders mobilizing huge masses. Faith groups have a huge influence and have made significant contributions to conservation, hence the need to work together with a wider group to create bigger impacts is more than ever. Together it will be possible.”. 

Globally, WWF’s Beliefs and Values Programme and Faith Invest - a network for the Faiths, have prepared an ambitious faith-driven initiative ‘The Faith Plans Framework’ together with many faith-based organizations. This is supported by many organizations, UN, environmental groups, and faith networks including the NBF.