Leaders from five different world religions - Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism - met in the town of Assisi, Italy in September 1986. They were brought together by the World Wildlife Fund, to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

The purpose of the meeting was to decide how their faiths could and should help to care for the environment. Each faith wrote a response to issues facing the natural world. Christians said that being in charge of creation does not give people the right to abuse, spoil, waste, or destroy what God has created.

The Christian Declaration on Nature drawn up at Assisi in 1986 is summarised here:

• All creation is designed to work together: God made it this way to show his Glory.
• Humans were created to look after everything in the world; they should not destroy it. 
• The world's resources, including animals, are not to be exploited. Humans must avoid damaging the world at all costs, including avoiding nuclear warfare.

You can read the full declarations by downloading this document: The Assisi Declarations