Dr. Arthur Lyon DAHL of Geneva, Switzerland, is a retired Deputy Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), where he was Deputy Director of the Oceans and Coastal Areas Programme, Coordinator of the UN System-wide Earthwatch (earthwatch.unep.net) and Director of the Coral Reef Unit (coral.unep.ch). He is now a consultant to international organizations on environmental assessment, observing strategies, indicators of sustainability, coral reefs, biodiversity, islands (islands.unep.ch), environmental education, and social and economic development, and Coordinator of the UNEP/University of Geneva Environmental Diplomacy Programme. He holds an AB in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and a PhD in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A specialist on coral reef ecology and small island developing states, he spent many years in the South Pacific and organized the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme. He represented the Bahá'í International Community at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972) where he participated in inter-faith activities, was in the Secretariat of the Rio Earth Summit (1992) to help prepare Agenda 21, and organized several parallel events at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002). He has also been active in the dialogue on religion and environment, including participation for UNEP in the World Summit on Religions and Conservation (Windsor, 1995), the Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment in the Black Sea organized by the Orthodox church in 1998, the Klingenthal Symposia on ecology and spirituality at the initiative of Pax Christi (France), the World Parliament of Religions (Barcelona, 2004) and other activities. He is President of the International Environment Forum (www.bcca.org/ief) and on the governing boards of the European Baha'i Business Forum (www.ebbf.org) and the Global Islands Network (www.globalislands.org). He has published many scientific papers and books including "Unless and Until: A Baha'i Focus on the Environment" and "The Eco Principle: Ecology and Economics in Symbiosis". His current interests include coral reef and island assessment and management, indicators of sustainability, integrating ecology and economics, and global strategies for environmental observing and assessment.