Christian World Service
PO Box 22652 Christchurch

March 26, 2009

Sri Lankan environmentalist joins Cantabrians for Earth Hour switch off

An international commentator on poverty and the environment will be at Earth Hour in Cathedral Square joining calls to reduce pressure on the planet.

Sarath Fernando, director of a Sri Lanka agriculture group which backs 1.8 million struggling small-holding farmers, is in New Zealand as guest of Christchurch-based overseas aid agency Christian World Service.  He is this week speaking in Auckland at the annual forum of the Council for International Development, an umbrella organisation of 90 New Zealand aid and development agencies.

Sarath Fernando was last year a panelist on the BBC programme Food – Who Pays the Price? which debated important issues affecting global food production.  In his campaign work, he supports small-holder farming as a way to reduce strain on the environment and improve the lives of the world’s poorest.  In the 1970s, he spent five years in a Sri Lanka prison, without being charged, for protesting the rights of small farmers.

On Saturday, he will take part in the Christchurch leg of Walk for the Planet, a relay walk up the South Island heading for the steps of Parliament calling for stronger green policies.  In Cathedral Square, CWS will hold a stall highlighting the devastating effects of the changing climate on the poorest countries in the world.  CWS will present Christchurch mayor Bob Parker with an ethical gift of mangroves for the Philippines.

On March 31, Sarath Fernando will speak at a public meeting on environment sustainability at Knox Presbyterian Church, 28 Bealey Avenue, at 7.30pm.

In 2007, the world’s renowned body on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the impact of climate change would be most severe in developing countries, risking efforts to halve world poverty by 2015.

CWS provides emergency aid and development assistance in 19 countries around the world.

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