Indonesia

Religion has a strong influence on most aspects of life in Indonesia. Many of the world's largest organized religions are represented in the archipelago, although Islam is dominant in most parts of the country.

It is believed Islam came to Indonesia with merchant traders in the twelfth century. Indonesian Islam is flavored by elements of Hinduism, Buddhism, animism and adat - traditional law.

The World Bank has engaged with Muslims in Indonesia by:

• Working within the structure of the GEF/IDA Kerinci-Seblat National Park Integrated Conservation and Development Project. A workshop was held in 2001 on Islam and Conservation at Sungai Penuh (Kerinci Regency) with religious leaders, government leaders, students, and women's organizations. The major achievement has been to show the villages that have signed Village Conservation Agreements under the GEF project that the agreed actions and restraints are consistent with and supported by Islamic law under the concepts of hima, harim, hisba, hisba, and muhtasib.
  
  
• Providing a model of Islamic environmental management for pesantrens (Muslim residential skills-based colleges) in West Java to develop a hima (protective measures/status on land holdings) on pesantren lands. Following two workshops, this is now being overseen by LIPI (Indonesian Institute of Sciences) in collaboration with various kyai. There is a group discussing the production of a short handbook on pesantren land management that should have a wide-ranging application with Muslim communities across Indonesia.

Christianity was introduced to Indonesia by the Dutch in the mid eighteenth century.

The World Bank has engaged with Christians in Indonesia by supporting:

• Establishment of an Environment Desk within the offices of the National Communion of Churches in Jakarta through which environmental information and education resources are disseminated. For example, 'Advent and Ecology' material highlights Christian teachings and recommends practical action on a range of environmental topics for preaching and teaching use during Advent. One thousand copies are being distributed through the Communion of Churches to targeted groups such as heads of sixteen Theological Colleges, Christian publishing houses concerned with Sunday School material, six selected Christian radio stations, religious correspondents of the major newspapers and heads of all the main Protestant denominations throughout Indonesia.
  
  
• Appropriate material on Christian Theology and conservation has been translated for distribution at the Annual Meeting of the 76 members of the Communion in November 2002. One of the main sources of information was the Alliance of Religions and Conservation's publication, 'A Handbook in Theology and Ecology'. The outcome was the formation of a permanent Environment desk for the Protestant Churches.
  
  
• The HKBP Batak Church (North Sumatra) have appointed an environmental officer who will be working directly to the Secretary General of the Church in Tarutung, northern Sumatra. The Church has 960 pastors, and 2,954 congregations amounting to 3 million members. The officer's responsibilities are to develop an environmental consciousness within the Church by focusing on issues with which the Church can positively engage. For example, deforestation and soil erosion are two key issues of concern for the Church - the environmental officer's task is to examine the capacity of the Church to form partnerships with NGO's and government agencies, and its potential to engage in reforestation projects.
  
  
• Within the Church community, ecological issues already form regular sermon themes and the General Office of the Church has developed awareness-raising workshops. The Batak Protestant Churches derive much inspiration from traditional Indonesian cultural connections with the natural world to produce an intimate link between theology and creation.
  
  
• The Tana Toraja region in south Sulawesi covers an area of 320,577sq.km. and this Protestant community of 125,000 take their name from this highland plateau. The official Toraja Church (BPSGT) in partnership with WALDA (a local environmental umbrella group) conducted a conservation workshop attended by community faith representatives, local traditional leaders, government and university representatives. They prioritized new ways of re-awakening traditional and religious values in relation to environmental issues through education, religious schools and the authority of local clan leadership