According to Bob,

This was part of the Society for Conservation Biology’s Religion and Conservation Working group. The paper is free to download and uses case studies to examine a tool for scientists to engage with faith communities. So not specific to Christians, but a few of the case studies are for Christian communities including mine which focuses on our microplastic work in France and Monaco

Find the paper here.

And here’s the abstract:

Recognizing the need to identify ways in which conservation researchers and practitioners can work constructively with faith leaders and communities to conserve biological diversity, the Religion and Conservation Biology Working Group of the Society for Conservation Biology formally launched the Best Practices Project in March 2016 for the purpose of collecting recommendations from SCB members throughout the world. A survey of members in 2016, a forum at the 2016 International Marine Conservation Congress in Newfoundland/Labrador, a symposium, workshop and poster session at the 2017 International Congress for Conservation Biology in Colombia, and an e-mail request to RCBWG members in October 2017 yielded many recommendations that constitute Guidelines for Interacting with Faith-based Leaders and Communities: A Proposal by and for Members of the Society for Conservation Biology published by the SCB in May 2018. Members have been reporting the efficacy of following these guidelines in their projects, and five who worked with different faiths presented their experiences in the field during a symposium at the 2019 ICCB in Malaysia. Abridged versions of their presentations are shared in this article with focus on guidelines that proved most helpful for facilitating conservation-faith collaboration to achieve project goals. Discussed subsequently are ways in which conservationists and faith communities benefited from their joint efforts, reasons why conservationists should consider engaging faith communities in their projects, and impediments to collaboration that must be overcome. The SCB guidelines are listed succinctly, and conservationists are urged to consider using them in their projects.

The article is trying to articulate how creation care enhances Frontier
Missions as currently defined, but also tries to suggest that the
current definition is inadequate as it focuses only on people and not
also on place. To have a full, Kingdom-minded, integral definition of
Frontier Missions, we need to not only think about humans, but the wider
social and environmental contexts, which puts creation not serving,
but being served….

Bob says, “Let’s see what people think.” So, what do you think?

[Read the article here.]

The A Rocha Kenya marine team recorded bleaching in 2013 and 2016, but with low levels (<10%) mortality for most corals. And now in 2020 the reefs are bleaching again and the A Rocha team in partnership with KWS are back out on the reef. We use permanent quadrats, where the same patch of reef is photographed every month during the event, and the fate of each coral is observed from bleaching response to eventual mortality or survival.

              The result of this current bleaching event will not be known until late 2020, but there are some hopeful signs. Overall coral cover has increased from 10% in 2011 to 20% in 2020 (before bleaching), showing that despite 2 bleaching events the reef recovered slowly towards its pre-1998 state with 40-50% coral cover. Also the crucially important branching Acropora or staghorn corals, which are normally very sensitive to thermal stress, are showing signs of resistance to bleaching during this event. There are many examples of colonies retaining their colour, and some that are regaining it (as of late May). So might the reef become resistant? Possibly, but there are still many colonies that are looking very unhappy and some that are starting to die. Scientists think that if we can propagate the resistant colonies that survive bleaching via ‘coral gardening’ we can help repopulate the reef with thermally tolerant corals, and give a much needed boost to this ailing ecosystem. Some think this is what is needed to get these ecosystems through the next hundred years or so until the world can get to grips with our CO₂ emissions, the ultimate cause for the coral’s calamity. We will continue to collect data and share stories about this work until September when the event will be over. Let’s pray for a dramatic recovery…”

Read the full report here. If you want to help out in efforts like this, or if you live in a part of the world that has coral, and would like to know how to help your own reefs survive, we’re sure Bob would love to chat with you!