Lane invited to Italy

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LETHBRIDGE - Professor Phil Lane, co-ordinator of the Four World Development Project, at the University of Lethbridge has been invited as a special guest to Assissi, Italy by the World Wildlife Fund International to participate in a special conference to launch a world-wide conservation campaign.

For the first time, the global conservation network met with representatives from the world's major religions as well as representatives from other faith communities.

The Wildlife Fund has chosen Assissi for the September 23 event because of its religious connection to the life of St. Francis of Assissi and the associated emphasis of the intimate kinship of nature and human beings.

Special invited guests taking part in the event included the minister general of the Conventuali Order of Franciscans representing Christianity, The Abbot of the Gyuto Tantric Monastery in India and personal representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama representing Buddhism, the president of the World Hindu Congress, the vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, and from Mecca, the secretary general of the Muslim World League.

Professor Lane was invited as a representative of the Native people of North America. Professor Lane participated in all conference activities, as well as making two major cultural presentations.

The World Wildlife Fund hopes to draw on the consistency of the world religious traditions of guarding against the abuses of creation and nature in launching an inter-national campaign to raise public awareness about the critical importance of conservation.

H.R.H. Prince Phillip, president of the World Wildlife Fund International, chaired the event and the president of Italy opened the conference.