==Secular organisations working with faith groups==
[[Image:faith group 2.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Biodiversity Analysis and Technical Support program of USAID’s Africa Bureau commissioned a report on religion and conservation in Africa. This work, [http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/Practice_to_Policy_to_Practice.pdf From Practice to Policy to Practice: Connecting Faith and Conservation in Africa], was written by Amy Gambrill of IRG, which explores some of the current practices of connecting faith and conservation, provides information on some of the faith groups doing conservation work, and presents several case studies on faith-based conservation. Photo: [http://frameweb.org/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=6823&glang=fr-CA Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group]]]
Water playing a significant part in faith is nothing new. What is new is that this wisdom and experience has been reactivated by the major secular organisations working with water. Together in partnership, the potential for reaching millions if not billions of people through faith-based networks is now a real possibility. It could change the way ambitious targets such as the Millennium Development Goals or their successors could be achieved.
Over the past decade, conservation and faith organisations have made high-level institutional pledges to work jointly on conservation efforts. Some of these pledges are now finding their way to concrete action, often through smaller, community-based conservation interventions.
The USAID white paper 2010 titled ''From practice Practice to policy Policy to practicePractice: connecting faith Connecting Faith and conservation Conservation in Africa '', explores some of the current practices of connecting faith and conservation. It provides information on some of the faiths groups doing conservation work, and presents several case studies on faith-based conservation, in an effort to discuss and learn how to best partner with faith communities on biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition, the UNICEF paper ‘Partnering with Religious Communities for Children’ in 2011, intends to strengthen those partnerships and make them more effective to improve children’s lives. It recognizes the huge importance of identifying common ground, open dialogue and developing partnerships with religious communities especially when addressing attitudes and practices associated with religious beliefs.
Equally WWF around the world has a history of working with the faiths. In 1986, HRH Prince Philip, then President of WWF International issued an astonishing invitation. He asked five leaders of the five major world religions – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism – to come and discuss how their faiths could help save the natural world. He decided to do this at Assisi in Italy, because it was the birthplace of St Francis, the Catholic saint of ecology. It was a unique occasion, involving some of the world’s leading environmental and conservation bodies sitting down for the first time with the world’s major faiths to discuss how they could all work together. This event along with WWF UK was instrumental in the founding of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation. Currently with the WWF US’s Sacred Earth program this link between the work of WWF and faith communities is growing.
==Potential for action and change==
