In 1974 my dream of going to some foreign country to serve humanity and my faith as a Bahá'í pioneer came true. I moved to New Caledonia to become the Regional Ecological Adviser at the South Pacific Commission, a regional intergovernmental organization of all the Pacific Islands, with its headquarters in Nouméa. There I married and founded a family, and served the Bahá'í community there and across the Pacific. In 1985 we moved to France, to Kenya in 1989 when I joined UNEP, and back to Europe in 1991. I settled in Switzerland and became a Swiss citizen, remaining in retirement. For a more professional view of my career development, see the separate page on My Life of Service. My immediate family pictures are reserved for my family only.

---

NOUMEA, NEW CALEDONIA 1974-1985

In 1974, the South Pacific Commission asked if I was still interested in the job that I had applied for 5 years before, so I decided to resign from the Smithsonian Institution and became Regional Ecological Adviser to 22 small island countries and territories of the South Pacific, moving to SPC headquarters in Noumea, New Caledonia. I achieved my dream to use my science to be of service to the poorest developing countries, while also assisting their Bahá’í communities as a pioneer.

. .
The beautiful island of New Caledonia, a continental fragment with an ancient flora; chief's house and Araucaria pines; Regional NSA of SW Pacific 1973

There I met and married a lovely French Bahá'í biologist and pioneer to New Caledonia, who worked in audio-visual and for the government committee against alcoholism, and later became a film-maker. One of the more unusual wedding presents from my wife's Belgian grandmother was a lithograph portrait of the famous German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, autographed by him and presented to their ancestor and famous Belgian scientist Adolf Quetelet. Von Humboldt was perhaps the first scientist to document human-caused climate change over 200 years ago.

The Bahá'í communities of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides (later Vanuatu) were together as the South-West Pacific, so we had activities in both countries, such as a Bahá'í Teaching Conference in Port Vila, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) in 1974.

.
Baha'i Teaching Conference, Port Vila, New Hebrides, 1974

. .
National Teaching Conference, New Hebrides, 1974

In my first year, I visited almost all the Pacific Island countries to determine their environmental needs, and went around the world establishing relations with organizations like the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Switzerland, and various organizations in the United States. This also allowed me to visit many Bahá'í communities and contribute to their local activities.

.
Attending a meeting at the Nairobi Bahá'í Centre, Kenya, 1974

Children at Nairobi Bahá'í Centre

My older brother Keith followed me to the Pacific, going to work for the Suhayl and Lilian Ala'i family in American Samoa who had first encouraged me to move to the region. He stayed for 37 years, and I was able to visit him and the Bahá'í community there very frequently.

.
Bahá'í picnic in American Samoa 1975

Bahá'í picnic in American Samoa 1975 with my brother Keith

.
American Samoa 1975 with my brother Keith

At the 1975 Bahá'í National Convention for both New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, in Port Vila, New Hebrides, I was elected to the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South-West Pacific and became its Treasurer.

.  . 
Baha'i National Convention; Bertha Dobbins, Knight of Baha'u'llah for the New Hebrides (first Baha'i) in light blue

My wife, Suhayl Ala'i and me at National Convention

For a more complete report, see separate page.

.  . 
Me in a boat 1975 on a mission to several countries; inside a taboo house, Lau Lagoon; Bahá'í village of Ridvan, Maleita, Solomon Is.

.
With Lindsey Gressitt, Wau Ecology Institute, Papua New Guinea; me in PNG

We decided to build a home on a steep piece of land below an old nickel mine on Mont-Dore, around the bay from the city of Nouméa, I designed a seven-sided house to fit on the land, with a roof intended to resist the strongest cyclones, which are frequent in New Caledonia. The house was designed to host Bahá'í activities, with a large open meeting space on the upper level.

Our house at Mont-Dore

Within a couple of years I was appointed to the Bahá'í Auxiliary Board for Protection, an advisory position without administrative responsibilities, and served in that role for nine years until our departure from the region. My area of responsibility included New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia.

Much of my time in the Pacific was spent in boats, diving on coral reefs or traveling between islands. For the next eight years, I assisted the island countries with everything from primary school curricula to creating national parks and reserves, training environmental planners, surveying all the ecosystems of the region, organizing scientific meetings, adopting a Convention on Conservation of Nature, and finally planning and launching the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), adopted by UNEP as a Regional Seas Programme, that eventually separated from SPC to become its own intergovernmental organization based in Apia, Samoa. See the separate page on My Life of Service.

There were many opportunities for Bahá’í service in the Pacific. We spent much time with local communities all around New Caledonia and in the New Hebrides (later Vanuatu).

.
Baha'i Centre, Tarawa, Gilbert Is. 1976; New Caledonia 1976

In February 1977, we went on home leave to California to visit my parents, and then on to a Bahá'í conference in Merida, Mexico, and another in Auckland, New Zealand.

. .
With my father in the redwoods at Big Sur on the California coast in 1977

In 1977, our Baha'i communities were divided into separate National Spiritual Assemblies for the New Hebrides and for New Caledonia, each with their own national convention.

. .
New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) National Convention, Port Vila, 1977 with Hand of the Cause Mr. Faizi

.
New Caledonia National Convention, Nouméa, 1977

.
New Caledonia National Convention 1977

Meanwhile, our Baha'i activities continued in New Caledonia, and our son was born in 1979.

Baha'i teaching trip in 1979

There were lots of Bahá'í children, so my children had many friends in children's classes.

I could take children down to the shore to explore sea life

Much of 1980 was a difficult time. I was busy preparing a Pacific Regional Environment Programme and was driving home from work when a drunk driver came around a blind corner at high speed and hit my car head-on, ejecting me with the car door, and leaving me seriously injured. It was three months before I could take my first steps, and nearly a year before I could go back to work.

In 1981, we had another home leave in California, and put the children in a nursery school behind Carmel Beach. It helped my daughter to learn English. Carmel Beach was a wonderful place for me and the family to relax.

Me on Carmel Beach, April 1981

.
Baha'i gathering in Poya, New Caledonia 1982; me in 1982

Nouméa was an excellent place to raise children, with a sub-tropical climate, a standard of living equivalent to France, a large lagoon with a yacht for every 10 people. We had a sailboat for a while, but it was not practical for small children.

One of my lifelong interests has been the work of Mark Tobey (1890-1976), an artist and Bahá'í who was a long-time friend of our family. I met him several times, and as my parents had a hundred of his works, I grew up surrounded by his paintings. My father decided to prepare a book about Mark Tobey, and he included an article that I had originally prepared for The Bahá'í World after Tobey's passing: The fragrance of spirituality: an appreciation of the art of Mark Tobey, in The Baha'i World 16:638-645 (1973-1976), Reprinted with revisions, p. 32-40, in Arthur L. Dahl et al., Mark Tobey: Art and Belief, George Ronald, Oxford, 1984.

. .
Mark Tobey: The New Day 1944; Fire Dancers 1957; Lovers of Light 1960

After my accident, we decided to move back into the city of Nouméa, and in 1982 bought one of the oldest colonial homes in the city, in the Vallée des Colons (valley of the colonists), built with timbers from the sailing ship that had brought the first French colonists. It had not been inhabited for 40 years, but we gradually restored it.

House in Vallée des Colons

My wife became the head of the audio-visual unit of the new Kanak Cultural Office set up to encourage and document Kanak culture. They were preparing for the South Pacific Festival of Arts planned for 1984, but which was cancelled at the last minute because of the political crisis. I had also prepared an extensive scientific programme for the festival.

After launching the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in April 1982, I had to leave the South Pacific Commission, which had adopted a limit on professional service, in November 1982, and I became a free-lance consultant. I remained in Noumea for two years to develop training materials for SPREP on rural environmental management, and continued as a consultant to other organizations and governments.

In 1984, we attended the dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Apia, Samoa, which my wife filmed, and I spoke at the public meeting.

. .
Grandmother Joyce Dahl, father and children; me speaking at the public meeting for the dedication of the Baha'i Temple in Samoa in 1984

See the separate album on the dedication of the Bahá'í House of Worship in Samoa.

In July 1984 we again visited my parents in California.

My father and his second wife Joanna

The renovations of our house in the Vallée des Colons were reasonably complete, and we finished the swimming pool, but it was clear that staying would be difficult with the political crisis over independence.

. 
Our house in the Vallée des Colons

.
Enjoying the new swimming pool just before leaving

In 1985, with a revolutionary movement in New Caledonia making life difficult, we were advised by the Bahá'í World Centre to leave New Caledonia and settle in France. First the children left in February 1985 to stay with their grandparents in Brittany. My wife packed and left some months later. I joined the family late in 1985 after settling our affairs in New Caledonia.

---

My older brother Keith followed me to the Pacific, going to work for the Ala'i family in American Samoa, and remaining there as a Bahá'í pioneer for 37 years. I often visited him on my trips to Samoa. Photography of the people of Samoa was his hobby and way of integrating, and on his passing in 2012 he left 780,000 photographs to the archives of American Samoa.

. .
Keith in Samoa 2010; preparing his photos for the archives 2012

.
Keith with Knight of Bahá'u'lláh for Samoa Lilian Ala'i, and Lena Kava

---

FRANCE 1985-1989

Our first year in France, we rented a house near my in-laws at Plomodiern in Brittany. We also went to visit my parents in Carmel, California.

. 
Dad, Mother, Keith and Roger, Carmel 1985

Finally we found a farm house in 1986 in the hamlet of Les Allues in the village of St. Pierre d'Albigny in the Tarentaise Valley in Savoie in the Alps.

Me at Les Allues

My mother had moved to a home at the entrance to Carmel Valley, and my family often spent time there when we visited California to enjoy the Monterey Peninsula and catch up with my family, just as we visited my wife's family in Brittany.

.
Mother and me, Carmel Beach 1987; lunch at Nepenthe, Big Sur, with my mother and visiting family 1987

.
Mother's home in Carmel Knolls; deer below the deck

. 
Me organizing firewood

When we could not enlarge the house at Les Allues as we wished, we bought in 1988 what remained of a small chateau, La Pallud, in the neighbouring village of St. Jean de la Porte. My office was in an ivory tower with a view of Mont-Blanc. It was a beautiful place to live, with skiing in the winter and hiking in the mountains in the summer. I continued as a consultant to international organizations and governments. When UNEP moved its Regional Seas Programme from Geneva to Nairobi, and with my experience building a regional seas programme in the Pacific, the Director, Stjepan Keckes, a wonderful Yugoslav scientist and dedicated international civil servant, brought me to Nairobi on three-month consultancies to rebuild the programme.

.
Chateau de La Pallud; garden seen from La Pallud

. .
The views from La Pallud; the sheep of the previous owner gave birth to lambs shortly after we moved in

With the Massif des Bauges right behind us, it was easy to go up and ski in the winter, and walk or go for a run in the forest in summer.

Me with brother Greg

---

NAIROBI, KENYA 1989-1991

In 1989, while on a consultancy with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, I was offered the post of Deputy to the Director of the Oceans and Coastal Areas Programme Activity Centre, helping countries around the world to protect their oceans and coastal areas. I thus became a United Nations staff member in March 1989, and we all moved to Nairobi.

Me in my office in UNEP Nairobi, 1991

I continued with OCA/PAC until 1991, when my wife had health problems and had to return to Europe with the children. The UN was organizing the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, so I was seconded to the secretariat in Geneva and drafted chapter 17 of Agenda 21 on oceans, coasts and small islands, helping to launch the concept of Small Island Developing States. In 1990 I published my first book, Unless and Until: A Bahá’í Focus on the Environment. I also prepared a Directory of Islands of the world for IUCN and UNEP.

We lived for a few months in the Chalet Ferry, St. Die, France, in 1991. Jules Ferry was a famous 19th century French political leader who created the public school system in France, and his great-grandson is my brother-in-law. There was even an opportunity to cross the Vosges mountains on horseback.

Preparing to cross the Vosges mountains on horseback 1991

---

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND 1992-2002

In March 1992, UNEP asked me to become Coordinator of the UN System-wide Earthwatch, based in Geneva, Switzerland, to assist the whole UN system to monitor and assess the global environment and to warn of new problems that were coming, so I remained in Europe. I also became Deputy Assistant Executive Director of the Division of Early Warning and Assessment. I collaborated with the sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development, helped to develop global observing systems, and launched and guided a process to develop indicators of sustainable development. In 2000, for my last two years in UNEP before retirement, I was made Director of a new Coral Reef Unit, charged with organizing efforts to save the coral reefs of the world, my original scientific interest. I also applied my systems thinking to the larger problems of society, writing another book The Eco Principle: Ecology and Economics in Symbiosis (Zed Books and George Ronald 1996).

The Alliance of Religions and Conservation organized a World Summit of Religions and Conservation at Windsor Castle in 1995. Many heads of religions attended, including Ruhiyyih Khanum, the leading Bahá'í dignitary, and a delegation from the Bahá'í International Community. Four experts were invited to present the issues to the religious leaders. I represented UNEP, and there was the director of the Environment Department of the World Bank, the head of the BBC World Service, and Susan George the economist. After four days of discussions, all the religions agreed that we had a responsibility of stewardship for the environment.

Summit of Religions at Windsor Castle 1995 (I am back row centre), Bahá'í nine-pointed star on left

My professional missions often gave me opportunities to give Baha'i talks and assist with local activities in many places around the world.

. .
Speaking in American Samoa, where my brother Keith lived, in 1994 and 1996

My UN career ended at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2002. The first week, as a UNEP official, I was launching what they called a type 2 partnership for coral reefs with the collaboration of the UN and the scientific community. The second week I had retired and represented our Bahá'í-inspired International Environment Forum (IEF) which was accredited to the conference.

Speaking at an IEF seminar at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002

Mother with her four sons in Carmel, ca. 2000

---

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND 2002-PRESENT

(see also my TRAVEL page and my CHALET and ACTIVITIES pages since 2000)

At the time that I joined the United Nations, the retirement age was 60, so in August 2002, I had to retire. I was attending the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a UNEP official the first week. The second week I had retired, and headed the delegation of the International Environment Forum (IEF), our Bahá’í-inspired professional organization which was accredited by the UN in the science and technology major group, organizing events in the science forum, with the conservation community, with the business community and at the university.

I decided to stay in Geneva, where I have a small apartment (29 m2) in the Châtelaine neighbourhood of the town of Vernier, a suburb of Geneva, a 3 minute walk from the UNEP offices in International Environment House. I escape when I can to my little chalet in the forest nearby in France. For two years I continued as a consultant to UNEP with activities that were an extension of what I had done before. In fact, UNEP continued for 8 years to provide me with an office for my projects with them, especially as Coordinator of the UNEP/University of Geneva/Graduate Institute Environmental Diplomacy Programme (2005-2009). I also had consultancies with other international organizations and the French oceanography agency IFREMER. Later I was a consultant to the World Economic Forum and the World Bank as well as UNEP. Part of my time was also devoted to IEF activities, and to ebbf – Ethical Business Building the Future, another Bahá’í-inspired organization bringing ethics and values to the business community and the workplace, where I am also a member of the Governing Board.

In addition to professional consultancies, many of my activities supported Bahá'í communities and our Bahá'í-inspired organizations. I spoke on a panel with economist Augusto Lopez-Claros at the European Baha'i Business Forum (EBBF), now Ethical Business Building the Future, Annual Conference, de Poort, the Netherlands, in 2003.

.  .
On a panel with Augusto Lopez-Claros at the ebbf Conference 2003; at a reception with Richard Helmer of WHO 2003; walking in the hills behind Acuto, Italy, with George Starcher at an ebbf conference in 2006

The World Economic Forum sent me to Taiwan to prepare a report on its economic success, so I was able to speak as well at the Bahá'í Centre in Taipei in 2005.

.
Speaking at the Bahá'í Centre in Taipei, 2005

With a family spread around the world, as well as many professional assignments, travelling continued to be part of my life. I visited my mother in Carmel, California, and then Quebec to visit my son in 2005. When my mother passed away in 2006 at the age of 97, the family gathered in California for the funeral.

.
My brothers and family after Mother's funeral 2006

Later in 2006, I joined my brother Greg and his family in Bulgaria and we went on to the first Bahá'í Summer Gathering in Macedonia, where I was one of the teachers. (more pictures on the Travel page).

.
Macedonian Baha'i Summer Gathering, Ohrid, 2006

At the Finnish Winter School in early 2007, I was one of the teachers on "Challenges to the World and Possible Responses", and gave a number of other talks for Bahá'í communities in Finland.

. .
Finnish Winter School, January 2007

.  . 
Finnish Winter School, small group discussions

. .
With my good friend Mika Korhonen (fellow ebbf board member) and family

In August 2007 I joined my brother Greg and his family at the Baha'i Summer School in Bulgaria.

The International Environment Forum conference was in Ottawa in 2007 (pictures), and I also gave a Bahá'í talk in Chambery, France.

  . 
Speaking at the IEF Conference, Ottawa, 2007; a Bahá'í talk in Chambery, France

At the 2008 Conference on Peace and Development in Montenegro, I spoke on the environment as a force for peace.

.
Speaking at the ECPD Conference in Montenegro, 2008

At the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2008, I met two other members of the International Environment Forum, Elizabeth McLean from Puerto Rico and my old friend Austin Bowden-Kerby from Fiji, both Bahá'ís.

With Elizabeth McLean and Austin Bowden-Kerby 2008

In 2008, I met the Canadian architect of the Baha'i House of Worship in Chile when he visited Geneva, and discovered that his inspiration for a "temple of light" came from a painting by Mark Tobey in my own collection (see separate page).

With Siamak Hariri 2008

In 2009, I was back in Bulgaria in June for a stay with Greg and his family.

2009 was the year of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit (COP15), where the Bahá'í International Community and the International Environment Forum planned a series of activities on Bahá'í principles relevant to this issue. UNDP was afraid that the intergovernmental conference would be a failure (which it was), so they invited all the religions to prepare action plans on climate change, and invited them to present them to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Prince Phillip at a gathering at Windsor Castle the month before. Tahirih Naylor of the BIC and I were the Bahá'í representatives. There was a procession into Windsor Castle with banners, the formal presentation of action plans, and a royal vegan banquet.

Gathering of Religions for Climate Action Plans, Windsor Castle

. .
The formal gathering at Windsor Castle; presenting the Bahá'í Action Plan to Ban Ki-Moon and Prince Phillip; Prince Phillip and Ban Ki-Moon

.
Procession, Windsor Castle; some of the religious representatives

. .
Bahá'í delegation, Tahirih Naylor and Arthur Dahl; procession; Bahá'í banner

After my first pilgrimage to the Bahá'í Holy Places in Haifa, Israel, with my family in 1960, I wanted to go back before I was too old to go again, so I made a second pilgrimage to Israel 50 years after the first in February 2010.

Family visits have continued regularly over the next decade until interrupted by the pandemic of 2020. I was in Bulgaria with Greg and his family in July 2010. I also spoke at the European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD) Conference in Croatia, and co-chaired a session; and addressed an AIESEC conference in Switzerland.

. .
Speaking at the ECPD Conference in Croatia; AIESEC conference in Switzerland, 2010

I made a trip to California with my brother Greg and family in July-August 2011. I spoke at the ECPD Conference in Montenegro later in the year.

. .
At the ECPD Conference in Montenegro in 2011

The International Environment Forum organized its 2011 Conference in Hobart, Tasmania, where I was a panelist, and its 2012 Conference as an IEF event at Rio+20, Rio de Janeiro, where I also spoke.

.
IEF panel in Hobart 2011; speaking at IEF event at Rio+20, 2012

In 2012, I traveled again to California with Greg and his family in July-August 2012, including a visit to Yosemite.  I made it back to the top of Mount Hoffman, in the High Sierras of California at age 70, 47 years after my last climb up. However my nephew and niece, and their Bulgarian friends, reached the top first. [see travel page for more photos]. My brother Keith passed away in American Samoa and I had to go to his funeral in December 2012.

On top of Mt. Hoffman, 2012

In March 2013 I visited Greg and his family in Bulgaria and then joined them in California in July-August 2013. The pattern repeated in 2014, first California in July-August 2014 with Greg and family, followed by a return to Sofia, Bulgaria in November.

Since Greg and his family moved to the Czech Republic for their children's schooling, I visited them there in August 2016. In October 2016 I represented Switzerland at the dedication of the Bahá'í House of Worship for South America in Santiago, Chile. I was off again to Bulgaria in August 2017 to see Greg and his family. In May-June 2019, I made an extensive Bahá'í teaching trip through Scotland, speaking in 24 communities in 22 days, and in the Scottish Parliament. Other travels are reported on my Activities page, until travel ended with the pandemic in 2020.

---

Having spent so much of my life dealing with environmental problems, I wanted to do something to give young people hope in the future, so I wrote another book In Pursuit of Hope: A Guide for the Seeker (George Ronald 2019). Most recently, with two Bahá’í friends, the economist Augusto Lopez-Claros and the international law expert Maja Groff, we prepared proposals to reform the United Nations that won the New Shape Prize of the Global Challenges Foundation in 2018, and we went on to write a book on the subject, Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

.

---