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  • Correspondence
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Need for religions to promote values of conservation

Nature volume 462, page 720 (2009)Cite this article

Boris Hillmann and Jan Barkmann suggest in their Correspondence that the world's religions could make a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation (Nature 461, 37; 2009). This was also a major theme in the interfaith Parliament of the World's Religions, which as held in Melbourne, Australia, this month (http://www.parliamentofreligions.org).

But the attitudes of different religions towards conservation can vary greatly. Compare, for example, the anthropocentric mainstream Muslim position that humanity has responsibility for Allah's creation, which has been given to us as a gift, with the biocentric Jain belief that every being — animal, plant or human — has a soul and should be treated with respect.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Middle Eastern Plants, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, UK

    Matthew Hall

  2. Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, 06511, Connecticut, USA

    John Grim & Mary Evelyn Tucker

Authors
  1. Matthew Hall
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  2. John Grim
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  3. Mary Evelyn Tucker
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For more about the Copenhagen conference, see page 714 and http://go.nature.com/sRCuKV.

Contributions may be submitted to correspondence@nature.com . Published contributions are edited. Please see the Guide to Authors at http://go.nature.com/cMCHno . Comments and debate are also welcome at our blog Nautilus: http://blogs.nature.com/nautilus .

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Hall, M., Grim, J. & Tucker, M. Need for religions to promote values of conservation. Nature 462, 720 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/462720c

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