Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4271519.stm
On February 17, 2005 the BBC News reported, "The Koran is not widely known as a source of guidance on environmental and conservation issues, but that has not stopped one development organisation in Tanzania from using it to help conserve an island marine park. Religious leaders have been asked to promote conservation messages using the texts of the Koran - an approach which has proved a great deal more successful than government regulations. The island of Misali is just a small dot in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Pemba... Destructive fishing methods were damaging the corals and harming species that lived there. Government bans had little impact. The fishermen who launch their wooden dugout canoe from the windswept shores of Misali, like 99% of the population of the Zanzibar archipelago, are Muslims. Once they realised that catches were falling dramatically, the non-governmental organisation Care International stepped in to persuade them to take better care of their environment - through a scheme based on Islamic principles."