An international two-day conference on "Environment, peace and the dialogue among civilisations and cultures" would be held in May in Tehran, the sources disclosed here on Wednesday. The conference would be held to examine the interaction between environment, peace and security in the context of multilateral cultural dialogue among civilisations, they said. According to them, the conference was a follow-up to the 2001 international seminar organised by Iran and United Nation Environment Protection in 2001, following Iranian President Khatami's invitation to broaden and encourage dialogue among civilisations on the environment, peace and security.
The conference would seek to underpin the imperative of genuine multilateralism and meaningful dialogue among civilisations as a mean for joint action against dehumanising poverty, rampant violence, increasing reliance on military might and continued erosion of the democratic practice, both at national and international levels.
Recent political and security developments on the international arena had made it clear that environmental degradation and the growing scarcity of natural resources could be the cause of conflict, the sources said.
According to them, a wide range of current and emerging environmental challenges have further reinforced the fundamental message that effective preservation, protection and management of the environment depend, first and foremost, on peace and security.