The moderator, Rev. Dr Jessica Hetherington from the United Church of Canada and convener of the WCC Biodiversity and Creation Justice Working Group, set the tone at the outset. “In our time of widespread species extinction, habitat loss, and threats to biodiversity . . . we need to take time to ask what it means to act locally for global impact,” she said, adding that “working locally in interreligious partnerships on biodiversity efforts can have a remarkable global impact.” Kevin Maina from the Anglican Church of Kenya grounded the conversation in a theological conviction that cuts across traditions: “The Earth is not merely a resource to be consumed. She’s a gift.” He argued that faith communities hold a distinctive power – one the environmental movement has often underestimated. Faith-based engagement, he said, is “one of the most important solutions, because it speaks to the moral imagination of people.” Dr Lovisa Minna Sjøberg, associate professor at VID Specialised University in Tromsø whose research centres on Sami theology and the history of Christianity in Sápmi, pointed to a continuity of harm that survives even the green transition: “The arguments have shifted from jobs and economic growth to the need for green energy and minerals, but the consequences for people, animals, plants, land and water remain largely the same.” Her phrase “theology of extractivism” named what she sees as a spiritual disease embedded in modern economies – and her counter-statement was direct: “Nothing in God’s creation is too small for us to care about.” Dr Alexandra Masako Goossens-Ishii, Buddhist, programme coordinator for environment and sustainability at Soka Gakkai International, pushed the diagnosis inward. “Biodiversity loss is not a problem out there, it’s really a symptom of something happening within: within individuals, within institutions, within humanity,” she said. On the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, she was direct: its commitments need to be “genuinely implemented, not just referenced in text.” Gopal Patel, Hinduist, co-founder and president of Future Faith and co-convener of the Faith Biodiversity Coalition, connected biodiversity loss to a crisis of governance and conversation. “The local conversations and the global conversations are becoming increasingly disconnected from each other . . . that’s why we’re seeing the polarisation in many parts of the world,” he observed. Dr Christina Nellist, president of Pan-Orthodox Concern for Animals Charity, extended the circle of concern to nonhuman life: “Both types of creatures are suffering, both are in danger, both need our help.” Dr Seyed Masoud Noori, the IMAM Organization’s representative to the United Nations and Muslim visiting scholar at New York University, offered the Quranic concept of trust as a moral anchor: “In Quranic perspective, everything is a kind of trust of God to us.” The webinar closed with a prayer from Dr Mathew Koshy Punnackadu, WCC commissioner for Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, that distilled the session’s spirit: “May our praise and lament lead to action; our faiths lead to transformation.” The event was part of WCC’s Living Planet initiative and its contribution to the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action. The next major milestone for global biodiversity governance is COP17, the UN Biodiversity Conference, scheduled to take place in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October. WCC webinar event page From Sámi theology to Hinduism, WCC webinar will highlight calls for biodiversity justice (News Release, 13 May 2026) Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework International Day for Biological Diversity UN Biodiversity Conference COP17, Yerevan, Armenia, 19–30 October 2026 | 
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