IIPT Global Peace Parks Project
“The future belongs to those who give the next generation reasons to hope” Pierre Teilhard DeChardin
Objectives of the IIPT Global Peace Parks are: to nurture the growth of peace and understanding at home and throughout the world; enhance awareness of a community’s commitment to peace and a healthy environment; create common ground for the community to come together in celebration of their nation’s people, land, and heritage, and the common future of all humankind; reflect on our connectedness to one another as a Global Family and to our common home, planet Earth.
As part of its 30th Anniversary Year events, IIPT has launched a “Global Peace Parks Project” with a goal of 2,000 Peace Parks circling the earth by November 11, 2020 to commemorate the Centenary of the end of World War I and its theme “No More War”. The project builds on the foundations of IIPT’s Peace Parks across Canada Project in 1992 commemorating Canada’s 125th birthday as a nation. That project resulted in 350 cities and towns dedicating a park to peace and was said to be the most significant of more than 25,000 Canada 125 Projects.
Partnering with IIPT on the project is United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the united voice and world advocate of democratic local self-government with a global network of cities, local and regional governments representing 70% of the world population. UCLG goals include contributing to the achievement of the SDG’s, Paris Agreement, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and New Urban Agenda for Sustainable Urban Development.
The Global Peace Parks Project builds on the success of IIPT’s 1992 “Peace Parks across Canada” Project commemorating Canada’s 125th birthday as a nation. IIPT conceived and implemented “Peace Parks across Canada” which resulted in 350 Peace Parks being dedicated by cities and towns from St. John’s, Newfoundland on the shores of the Atlantic, across five time zones to Victoria, British Colombia on the shores of the Pacific.
The Peace Parks were all dedicated on October 8, 1992 as a National Peace Keeping Monument was being unveiled in Ottawa and 5,000 Peacekeepers passing in review. Each park was dedicated with a ‘bosco sacro’ – a peace grove of 12 trees, symbolic of Canada’s 10 Provinces and 2 Territories, as a link to one another, and a symbol of hope for the future. Of the more than 25,000 Canada 125 Projects, Peace Parks across Canada was said to be the most significant.
IIPT International Peace Parks have since been dedicated as a legacy of each IIPT International Conferences and Global Summits. Notable IIPT International Peace Parks include Bethany Beyond the Jordan, site of Christ’s baptism as a legacy of the IIPT Amman Summit, 2000 and Victoria Falls, as a legacy of the IIPT 5th African Conference, 2011 and subsequently re-dedicated as the featured event of the on Opening Day of the UNWTO 20th General Assembly, 2013 co-hosted by Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Background to IIPT Peace Parks
For centuries the natural space between trees has been considered sacrosanct. First nations dwelt on the spirituality that existed in the metaphor of the tree. A tree’s roots grasp the earth and are nurtured by it, while its branches reach out to the endless possibilities of the heavens. Ancient cultures such as the Greeks and the Vikings believed that the space between trees was “Bosco Sacro” – Sacred Space.
Objectives
- To nurture the growth of peace and understanding at home and throughout the world.
- To enhance awareness of a city or town’s commitment to peace, sustainable development and a healthy environment.
- To create a common ground for members of the community to come together in celebration of their nation’s people, land, and heritage, and the common future of all humankind in our one common home, planet earth.
- A place of reflection on our connectedness to one another as a Global Family and to the earth of which we are all a part.
The Global Peace Parks Project builds on the success of IIPT’s Peace Parks Across Canada Project commemorating Canada’s 125th birthday as a nation in 1992.
