International Environment Forum Conference 2025
Building Capacity for Sustainability Discourse and Action
Join us for a weekend of reflection, collaboration, and action—where science, values, and community come together for a sustainable future!
Date: From 26th June 7pm to 29th June 1pm, 2025
Location: Bahá’í Training Centre, 45 Ploughley Rd, Lower Arncott, Bicester OX25 1NY, UK
Letter from our Chair Person, Justin Matale
NAWO is sponsoring The International Environment Forum Conference, which is taking place at the Bahá’í Training Centre in Bicester near Oxford, from 26th – 29th June 2025.
We would therefore, like to invite those that are interested in this exciting weekend to attend the Conference, where we will learn how to build capacity for both public discourse and social action on the subject of the environment and climate change, with the intersection of women and girls, drawing on resources from Bahá’í educational materials, case studies, panel discussions, and beyond!
There will be panels, nature walks and great networking for those interested to participate.
If anyone would like to contribute something to the programme or the atmosphere, please get in touch at ief@iefworld.org
Concept Note
At a time when the forces of disintegration, including the triple environmental crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, are threatening people everywhere, the world-wide Bahá’í community is working at the grass roots to strengthen forces of integration, bringing people together for unity in diversity. The 29th annual conference of the International Environment Forum aims to contribute to these efforts toward building a world where we live in harmony with nature and with each other. The primary tools we will explore for this purpose are social action and public discourse.
The International Environment Forum is a Bahá’í-inspired professional organisation for the environment and sustainability that has, over many years, gathered knowledge and created materials to build capacity for taking part in both social action and public discourse, demonstrating the complementarity of scientific and spiritual approaches in addressing environmental issues. The 29th annual conference will be focused on sharing and further developing this knowledge together with participants in support of the goals of the present plan of the worldwide Bahá’í community.
In social action, communities read their local reality and needs, set their own priorities within the resources available, and initiate actions to improve life in their community. This could be a group of young people engaging in an environmental clean-up, or some neighbours starting a community garden. Public discourse might be sharing both scientific information and spiritual principles of justice and solidarity about climate change, presenting the Bahá’í approach to welcoming migrants and refugees, or organising an interfaith gathering to pray for peace.
There is a particular need to address the materialistic consumer society that has driven us far beyond the sustainable limits of the Earth’s resources. Advertising and social media cultivate addictions in the name of profits. Fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories entrap people in distrust and fear. The conference will explore these issues and how to find positive ways forward, overcoming anxiety about the direction the world is taking and providing both scientific knowledge and spiritual principles that can motivate constructive action.
The conference will be participatory in its format and encourage joint learning. We welcome people of all ages but particularly welcome youth and those working with youth and junior youth groups as animators to explore how their activities relate to environmental issues as part of their local – and global – reality. Together we can learn how to build capacity for both public discourse and social action drawing on resources from Baha’i educational materials and beyond. The conference organisers are also welcoming young and old Bahá’ís who are engaged in environmental social action to share their experience. There will also be an opportunity for a hands-on environmental service project on the grounds of the Baha’i Training Centre.
