Environment is 'under stress', say Lutheran leaders

The melting snow on Mount Kilimanjaro points to an environment "under stress", says the head of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the Rev Dr Ishmael Noko.

Speaking on the eve of a five-day meeting of the LWF Council in Arusha, Tanzania, this week, Dr Noko added that climate change is a worldwide problem and that the disappearance of some rivers and species of animals and plants indicates environmental problems.

The LWF's governing body is currently meeting under the theme "Melting Snow on Mount Kilimanjaro: A Witness of a Suffering Creation". The meeting is being hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).

ELCT General Secretary Bighton Killewa acknowledged the difference of opinion among experts on the extent to which snow has melted on Mount Kilimanjaro. He added, however, that there was still substantial evidence of change in the forests and habitation around Africa's highest mountain.

The Council's theme, Killewa explained, is a "signal" of the need "to take care of our
environment".

Noko, meanwhile, argued that the present global food crisis was rooted in increased bio-fuel production and horticultural production for export abroad, a strong industry in many African countries.

"There is something wrong with policies that discourage people from using arable land for food production and use it instead to produce export crops [that] they cannot eat such as flowers while the same countries import food," said Noko, adding that agricultural policies must be based on the assumption that food is a universal right.

Also up for discussion during the LWF Council are poverty and its impact on particularly Global South populations, illegitimate debt and the role of the churches
in holding governments accountable for illegally acquired debts.

The LWF's next Assembly, held every six years, is scheduled to be held in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2010.