Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Greening Indonesia

Early this month, UK-based Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES) held its first-ever fundraising event in London, launching the "Greening Indonesia" campaign. The audience heard from guest speakers environmentalist Ayman Ahwal, Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad, Fachruddin Mangunjaya of Conservation International Indonesia, and a representative of the Indonesian embassy in the UK.
Raising Awareness

For more than two decades IFEES has been raising awareness among Muslims and non-Muslims on Islam's take on environmental issues. It also trains people working on conservation projects in Muslim countries.

In Indonesia, IFEES has been involved in projects such as the Gunung Mas eco-village and in the conservation and surveillance of the Gunung Leuser rainforest. "Greening Indonesia" aims to conserve and reforest the rapidly depleting ancient Sumatran rainforests, starting with Aceh.

The campaign has a simple call: plant a tree and the reward is charity.>>>>

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Ban Ki-moon urges religious leaders to 'act boldly' to protect people and planet

UN secretary-general tells delegates at Windsor Castle summit that they can 'provoke, challenge and inspire political leaders'

The UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told religious leaders they should 'act more boldly'. Photograph: STR/EPA

The UN secretary-general today urged religious leaders to "set an example for the lifestyle of billions" by establishing green places of worship, purchasing environmentally friendly goods and investing ethically in sustainable products.

Ban Ki-moon made the rallying cry in Windsor Castle, where members of faith-based and secular groups were attending a three-day climate change summit. He told delegates they could encourage governments to "act more boldly" in protecting people and the planet.

"We have technology and the science. Science has made it clear that climate change is happening and accelerating much, much faster than one realises," he said.

"We have know-how and resources but the only vacuum is political will, that is all that is lacking. You can provoke, challenge and inspire political leaders."

The audience sitting in the Waterloo Chamber had travelled from as far away as China, Ghana, India, Japan and Tanzania. Moon said many in the room had first-hand experience of the climate crisis.

"Those most likely to suffer first and worst … are the poor. The poor are also least responsible for the emissions currently in our atmosphere."

"It is not a game of who waits for whom. Industrial countries should take the first step." The major faith groups were involved with more than half of the world's schools, they were the third biggest category of investors, they produced more weekly magazines and newspapers than "all the secular press" in the European Union, he added.

"Your potential impact is enormous. You are the leaders who can have the longest, widest and deepest reach."

His address was a sober moment in the day's events, which started with a procession of conference delegates through the suburban town. Their robes sweeping the puddles, Buddhists, bishops, imams, monks, priests and rabbis ascended the hill to the castle.

Once inside the panelled room they heard each other's plans to tackle climate change in their communities. In China, Buddhists would promote vegetarianism and a more abstemious approach to burning sticks of incense. From India there came pledges to use solar power in Sikh gurdwaras and to conduct energy audits.

The UN assistant secretary-general Olav Kjorven said the timing of the Windsor gathering could not have been more fortuitous.

Negotiators were meeting in Barcelona this week ahead of next month's Copenhagen Climate Change Conference next month and they would, he said, continue "the age-old rite" of climate change negotiations in which each participant would to try to secure the best deal for their country, and leave the others with as much of the bill as possible.

"You have come to Windsor with the opposite mentality – that there is an abundance of possibilities."

The three-day summit, organised by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, finishes tomorrow.

Fachruddin Mangunjaya, from Conservation International Indonesia, said he was encouraged by the secretary-general's words. "It is very important for us. We have real recognition and support from the United Nations. Around 85% of the world believes in something and it's about how you change hearts and minds. One way to do that is religion."

"We have many environmental problems in Indonesia – we suffer from flooding, tidal waves. We have 1,000 islands and we are fragile. Lots of our people live in coastal areas, by the beach. We should move quickly and act now."

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 November 2009 17.10 GMT

Related Story of Windsor Celebration In Bahasa Indonesia

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Govt to roll out green curriculum in Islamic schools

Indra Harsaputra , The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

The Religious Affairs Ministry will next year roll out a
curriculum with more emphasis on the environment in Islamic
boarding schools, also called pesantren.

Ministry director of pesantren Education Chainuri said the new
curriculum would teach students not only about the Koran and
religion, but also about taking responsibility for the
environment, while fostering innovative thinking about
environmental protection programs.

"It is apparently not easy to raise awareness about the
environment in pesantren, because a number of Islamic boarding
schools regard it as a secondary issue," Chainury said, when
addressing a workshop titled "Environmental management and
development based on religion and social institution" at the
Sunan Ampel Islamic Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) in
Surabaya recently.

"However, the curriculum based on the environment aims to change
the image of pesantren."

He added his office would coordinate with the office of the
State Minister for the Environment and academics at the Sunan
Ampel IAIN to draft the new curriculum.

The curriculum will also be implemented at madrasah (Islamic
schools) for elementary and senior high school students.

Bambang Widiantoro from the department of urban community
empowerment affairs at the Office of the State Minister for the
Environment said the idea to roll out a new curriculum focusing
on environmental issues germinated during a pesantren students'
jamboree held from June 15 to 20, 2009, at Jati Nanggor,
Sumedang, West Java, which involved hundreds of pesantren from
across the country.

"We also spearheaded the eco-pesantren program last year, after
which many pesantren started teaching environmental classes and
preaching healthier living at their schools," he said.

The head of the East Java chapter of the Muhammadiyah Islamic
organization, Syafig Mughni, welcomed the program as he
recognized that Indonesians were increasingly focusing their
attention on environmental issues.

"It's high time to implement the program, given our environment
has become a further cause of concern with deforestation and
other issues," he said.

Syafiq added that his organization was also designing a
curriculum focusing on the environment for Muhammadiyah's
Islamic schools across East Java, which would be implemented
next year.

"We are currently training teachers to run classes on the
environment. A number of environmental education programs will
be developed incorporating fiqih [Islamic jurisprudence], such
as the need to wash hands with soap, proper waste disposal and
producing organic fertilizer from garbage," he said.

IAIN Sunan Ampel rector Nur Syam said his university would
conduct further research on the importance of environmental
management and development based on religion, to promote the
environmentally-based curriculum in Islamic schools.

"We will publicize results of the research in a journal and
manual for pesantren students, teachers and provide training and
counseling at a number of pesantren that will serve as a pilot
project," he said.

The Jakarta Post Friday, October 09, 2009

Related News and Notes to Eco Pesantren:

Friday, October 9, 2009

Muslim Schools Lead Islamic Green Movement in Java

When founders of the Darul Ulum boarding school, a traditional pesantren, started building the school compound on the hilly area of Lido in Sukabumi, West Java, in 1995, it was so hot and humid that the founders had second thoughts whether the place was really suitable for learning.

“I did not know exactly what the temperature was then but it felt so hot,” said Ahmad Yani, one of the founders.

Then the founders decided to set aside one hectare of the 7-hectare area as a harim, which literally means forbidden zone. Any form of production and settlement in it was banned.

“The only activity allowed are planting and maintaining the planted trees,” Ahmad said.

Four years later, the air around the school is cool and fresh.

That is after 700 trees — made up of varieties of mango, avocado, rambutan and durian — thrive in the zone. The number of trees is exactly the number of the pesantren’s graduates because every student is required to plant a tree before they can take the school’s final test.

“We imposed a policy called ‘one student one tree,’” Ahmad said, adding that teachers evaluated students not only on planting trees but also on how they maintained them. “If the trees they have planted grew well, they would get a high score,” he said.

Now, after almost all of the allotted land has been filled with trees, pesantren leaders are under pressure to find additional land to grow trees.

Besides trees planted by students, the pesantren also grows teak trees, now numbering about a hundred.

The harim zone is located beside the Cihilir river, which is threatened by pollution and sedimentation as more people from outside the villages build cottages by the riverside.

Several mineral water producers also utilize the river by pumping the water up to their refinery tanks. “Free of charge,” complained a frustrated Ahmad, “without paying attention at what they should do to make the water supply sustainable.”

The Darul Ulum’s policy on harim has historical and religious roots.

The harim scheme was introduced by prophet Muhammad in the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century to protect river and water resources, which was fundamental for Muslim ablution from pollution and damage.

The harim area for a river extends to half of the river’s width on both sides and the harim area for a tree extends from the tree to a radius of two-and-a-half to three meters.

There is also a forbidden zone for wells or water sources that can extend to a 20 meter radius.

Harim is part of the Islamic conservation teaching called himma, which is a system of resource tenure that has been practiced for more than 1400 years in the Arabian peninsula. Prolonged political conflicts and war has hampered the implementation of himma over the last centuries.

The Darul Ulum’s success story in protecting nature drew other presantrens in Bogor, including nongovernmental organizations, to follow suit. On July 29, 2008, 19 pesantrens representing 31,900 students converged in Bogor to launch a more ambitious move: protecting the Gunung Gede Pangrango and Halimun-Salak national park through the implementation of himma.

Now, the pesantren environmental movement has received a boost from international NGOs like Conservation International, USAID and the Center for Indonesian Environment (PILI).

A number of academics from the country’s major universities are also part of the movement. The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) is building a strategic alliance with the schools

The pesantrens’ initiatives are connected with an international inter-faith conservation movement called the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.

This alliance, based in the United Kingdom, incorporates at least nine religions — Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism and Jainism — so it covers all believers of major religions on earth.

About 88 percent of the world’s population are faith believers.

Due to its huge potential, this organization became a major partner of the World Bank in running faith-based conservation projects around the globe in 1995. ARC is the only worldwide organization to bring together environmentalists and religious leaders in green projects.

“I think it is the time to give Islam a chance in conservation, after so much funds and energy from NGOs and governments were spent with less encouraging results,” said Fachruddin Mangunjaya of the CI.

He said the current interpretation of Islam has been too political, whereas its teachings like shariah carried a strong message on environmental conservation. “Actually environmental protection takes center stage in shariah,” he said.

The university rector, Komaruddin Hidayat, said Muslims should follow guidelines the Prophet Muhammad had set out, including planting trees and converting idle land to fertile soil.

He said during the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, Muslims were forbidden to kill or destroy any living creature, including a mosquito, or to break the branch of a tree.

“This has left the environment of Saudi Arabia undamaged, even though those two holy cities are visited by pilgrims all year round,” he said.

From Bogor, the faith-based environmental movement then spread to West Java province.

Data from the ministry of religions shows that 1,311 of West Java’s pesantrens are located in mountainous areas, 1,065 in agricultural estates, 87 on coastal lands and 114 by rivers.

Over the years, the schools have incorporated into their curricula teachings that reflect their close relationship with the land, including agriculture and animal husbandry. The institutions are also influential in the villages in surrounding areas, so they are able to mobilize tens of thousands of villagers to help rehabilitate degraded lands and erosion-prone areas by convincing them that saving the environment is a religious duty.

Most of all, the pesantrens’ commitment to environmental sustainability is indubitable. Students and their leaders see themselves as guardians of their own soil. “Protecting the environment is a religious duty,” says K.H. Mansyur Ma’mun, leader of the Al-Amanah boarding school in Cililin, Bandung.

While conservation has become a trigger for making Islamic teaching more relevant, it has an additional benefit — to dispel the image that pesantrens are factories for bombs and organizing suicide attacks on ‘kafirs,’ or infidels.

In Garut, one of the pesantren bases in West Java province, ulemas or Muslim scholars, have gone a step further and issued a ‘fatwa’ or religious decree, ruling that harming nature is a serious violation of Islamic law.

Thantowi Yahya Musaddad, leader of the Al-Washilah pesantren, has also made an all-out effort to protect the environment, even composing a ‘shalawat lingkungan’ or a song of praise to Prophet Muhammad, containing environmental messages.

“I see this green campaign as a calling,” he said. “This is a matter of faith.”

But things are not always easy. The biggest challenge is, as Fachruddin sees it, the partial interpretation of Islam. “Many Muslims still think that missing shalat [prayer] is a sin but throwing waste into the river is not a sin.”

“No shariah law is imposed on Muslims who do harm to the environment,” Fachruddin said.


>>>SOURCE: THE JAKARTA GLOBE<<<<

Thursday, August 13, 2009

News from Istanbul Meeting

  • July 9, 2009

    New sins, new virtues

    As the world heats up and economic dislocation ravages the poor, religious leaders offer up their diagnoses and prescriptions The Economist

    GLOBALISATION, technology and growth are in themselves neither positive or negative; they are whatever humanity makes of them. Summed up like that, the central message of a keenly awaited papal pronouncement on the social and economic woes of the world may sound like a statement of the obvious.

    But despite some lapses into trendy jargon, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), a 144-page encyclical issued by Pope Benedict XVI on July 7th, is certainly not a banal or trivial document. It will delight some people, enrage others and occupy a prominent place among religious leaders’ competing attempts to explain and address the problems of an overheated, overcrowded planet.

    For full story, visit:
    http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14002725
  • July 31, 2009

    Eco-Islam
    Living on Earth
    Distributed by Public Radio International Green is the color of the conservation movement, and the traditional color of Islam. At a recent conference in Istanbul, Islamic scholars from all over the Muslim world gathered under an especially green banner to talk about climate change. Mahmoud Akef (MAHMOOD AKEEF) organized the conference, and talks with Jeff Young about the seven year Muslim Action Plan on global warming, which sets out to green the Hajj, boost awareness, and create an eco-Islamic label for products.To listen to this interview or read the full transcript, visit:http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00031&segmentID=6

Thursday, August 6, 2009

11 Pondok Pemenang Eco Pesantren 2009

21 Jul 2009 14:37 WIB

Sebelas (11) Pondok Pesantren berhasil ditetapkan sebagai pemenang Lomba proposal dari 43 Pondok Pesantren yang Proposalnya masuk ke panitia selama periode bulan Januari-Juni 2009. Penyelenggaraan Lomba Proposal Penyediaan Sarana Fisik Pendukung Eco-Pesantren sebagai salah satu bentuk aplikasi Program Eco-Pesantren, bertujuan antara lain untuk memotivasi dan mendorong terwujudnya upaya penyediaan sarana fisik dan kegiatan ramah lingkungan secara swadaya dan mandiri oleh Pondok Pesantren sebagai salah satu ciri bahwa Pondok Pesantren tersebut telah berwawasan lingkungan.

“Pengembangan sarana fisik dan kegiatan ramah lingkungan yang dipelopori oleh Pondok Pesantren diharapkan dapat dijadikan percontohan bagi komunitas Pondok Pesantren dan masyarakat sekitarnya”. Demikian antara lain disampaikan oleh Ir. Bambang Widyantoro, Asisten Deputi Urusan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Perkotaan, Deputi Komunikasi Lingkungan dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat pada acara Rapat Tim Teknis Penilaian dan Penetapan nominasi Pemenang Lomba Proposal Tahap I yang diselenggarakan pada tanggal 9 Juni 2009 yang lalu. Selanjutnya >>>>

Berita Terkait :

Deklarasi Muslim Seven Year Action Plan to Deal with Global Climate Change

Tanggal 6-7 Juli lalu, di Istanbul, Turki, telah diadakan Konferensi Islam dan Lingkungan dan dilengkapi response negara negara muslim dengan deklarasi rencana aksi Muslim untuk Perubahan Iklim Global selama tujuh tahun (Muslim Seven Year Action Plan (M7YAP) to Deal with Global Climate Change).

Penulis bersama Alamah Dr Yusuf Qardhawi

Mereka yang hadir dalam konferensi ini, adalah dari berbagai kalangan termasuk para akademisi, aktifis lingkungan, ahli syariah Islam, perwakilan pemerintah, LSM, media muslim, dari negara-negara muslim, seperti Kuwait, Uni Emirat, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Maroko, Malaysia, Algeria, Tunisia, India, Indonesia, Mesir, Senegal, Turki, serta jaringan pimpinan muslim Eropa dan Amerika dan juga ulama terkemuka dan mufti seperti Dr Ali Juma’a, Mufti Agung Mesir, Dr Ekrema Sabri, Mufti Palestina, Dr Salman Alouda (ulama Saudi Arabia) Ali Mohamad Hussein Fadlallah, (ulama syiah Lebanon), termasuk juga faqih terkemuka Dr Yusuf Qardhawi yang menyampaikan makalahnya tentang Islam dan penataan lingkungan.



Thursday, May 7, 2009

Pesantren Terapkan Harim Zone di Bantaran Sungai

Menghidupkan pemeliharaan lingkungan sesuai anjuran ajaran Islam

Bogor (7 Mei 2009)-- Partisipasi publik untuk pelestarian alam dan lingkungan perlu terus ditingkatkan. Salah satunya adalah dengan menularkan kearifan tradisional dan cara-cara nyata dalam praktik pelestarian alam.

Salah satu upaya memberikan kontribusi tersebut adalah dengan memberikan pendidikan dan contoh praktis tentang kearifan melestarikan alam melalui pendekatan agama Islam. “Islam merupakan agama yang mempunyai ajaran dan tradisi yang khas dalam mengajarkan perawatan lingkungan. Salah satu bentuknya adalah bentuk perawatan sungai dan fasilitas publik dengan cara penetapan zona larangan (harim zone) di bantaran kali atau sungai dan perawatan pelestarian dengan sistem hima (perlindungan alam asli),” kata Fachruddin Mangunjaya, MSi yang menulis buku Khazanah Alam: Menggali Tradisi Islam untuk Konservasi, bersama Dr Ahmad Sudirman Abbas. Harim zone mewajibkan setengah dari lebar sungai kekiri dan kekanan, terbebas dari bangunan dan membiarkan vegetasi dan tumbuhan bebas sebagai penyangga sungai.



Tradisi ini dihidupkan kembali sebagai sumbangan pada pemeliharaan lingkungan yang dianjurkan oleh ajaran Islam.Penerapan harim zone ini merupakan yang pertama kalinya di Indonesia dan diterapkan sebagai sebuah pilot project di Pondok Pesantren Modern Daarul’ Uluum, Sukabumi. “Ini adalah sebuah program percontohan dan merupakan arena latih para santri untuk mengenal dekat tentang perawatan alam dan lingkungan,” ujar Ustadz Drs H Ahmad Yani, Ssos, Pimpinan Pesantren Modern Daarul ‘Uluum Lido, Bogor.

Di PM Daarul ‘Uluum ini pada Kamis (7/5) diadakan pula pertemuan para ustadz dari beberapa pesantren sehari penuh mendiskusikan praktik konservasi Islami: sistim hima dan harim yang pernah diterapkan pada zaman Nabi Muhammad saw. Nara sumber yang hadir antara lain Iwan Wijayanto dari Conservation International Indonesia dan Dr Ahmad Sudirman Abbas dari Fakultas Syariah Universita Islam Negeri (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta dan Fachruddin Mangunjaya, Conservation and Religion Initiative.



Menurut Iwan Wijayanto, Conservation International Indonesia mendorong inisiatif masyarakat untuk berkontribusi dalam pelestarian alam dari mulai kalangan masyarakat awam, pelajar (santri) hingga para pengambil keputusan. Oleh karena itu inisiatif berkontribusi untuk menjaga keseimbangan alam apalagi sumber mata air sebagai bagian dari jasa ekosistem, sangat penting dipertahankan. “Kami memberikan dorongan penuh agar semua kalangan perduli dalam memelihara sumber air bersih dan perawatan sungai dan ekosistem terutama di Kawasan Gunung Gede Pangrangu, Halimun dan Salak,” tutur Iwan Wijayanto.

Inisitatif Agama dan Konservasi ini didukung oleh Rufford Small Grant bekerjasama dengan Yayasan Owa Jawa dan didukung oleh Conservation International Indonesia.

Related Link:

Rufford Small Grant

Dialog Kontribusi Pesantren untuk Konservasi


Menghidupkan Kembali Perawatan Bantaran Sungai


Muslim School Leads Environmental Movement in Java

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Pesantren Konservasi Kiyai Basith

Orangnya kalem, klimis, bersih tetapi mempunyai tangan dingin menanam pohon dan telah berhasil memanen. Itulah Kiyai Basith, mungkin perlu dicontoh oleh pesantren lain. Saya pernah menceritakan di blog ini bahwa saya juga belajar dari beliau, kemarin kegiatan beliau di Pesantren Al Amin, diliput oleh berbagai media Nasional.

Lihat berita berikut ini:

SUKABUMI, KOMPAS.com - Pesantren Al-Amin pimpinan KHR Abdul Basith di Sukabumi, Jawa Barat, menggandeng Aqua, produsen air mineral di daerah itu, untuk menggalakkan konservasi lingkungan dengan pola organik. Sepanjang Jumat (20/3), lahan tidur dan lahan pekarangan milik pesantren dan warga di desa Giri Jaya, Tangkil, dan Babakan Pari ditanami ribuan pohon sengon.

"Gerakan pesantren dan kampung konservasi ini, menjadi bagian program konservasi jangka panjang dari Gunung Salak Lestari. Kegiatan konservasi organik ini melibatkan tiga pesantren, yaitu Pesantren Daarussalam di Desa Girijaya, Pesantren Daarul Falah di Tangkil, Pesantren Dzurunnain di Babakan Pari, serta kampung Manglid," kata Abdul Basith.

Abdul Basith menjelaskan, di sela pohon sengon akan ditumpangsarikan tanaman muda, sesuai keinginan masyarakat, yang hasilnya diharapkan bisa meningkatkan kesejahteraan masyarakat. Program konservasi mencak up beragam kegiatan, antara lain menjalin kemitraan dengan universitas atau lembaga swadaya masyarakat untuk memberikan pelatihan cara membuat pupuk kompos, penyuluhan peternakan, pembibitan benih, dan di masa depan membantu pemasaran hasil pertanian organik. >>>Seterusnya

berita lainnya: http:

Pesantren Konservasi di Sukabumi

Pesantren Gunung Salak (Harian Pelita)

Tanam sengon sambut hari air sedunia

Monday, January 5, 2009

Etika Islam Terhadap Lingkungan

Oleh: Fachruddin M. Mangunjaya (Dikutip dari KORAN TEMPO)

Pencinta lingkungan

Dalam Oktober ini, penulis dua kali diundang mengikuti pertemuan dengan topik peran dunia muslim terhadap lingkungan. Pertama, pertengahan Oktober, di Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, yang membahas isu Islam dan lingkungan secara keseluruhan, dan kedua di Kuwait, membahas Islam dan Perubahan Iklim (Islam and Climate Change ) yang diadakan pada akhir Oktober.

Selanjutnya >>>>