Human Futures No. 2 May 2018 | Page 10

THE IMPORTANCE OF HARDANGER ACADEMY JOHANNE MARGRETHE HARTWIG The Hardanger Academy for Peace, Development, and Environment is a NGO that arranged yearly summer symposia in Jondal since 2000. Under its former name, “Nordic Peace Academy” the organization has worked with peace issues and how to solve minor and major conflicts by human meetings - dialogue work - non-violent means. The Hardanger Academy’s primary goal is peace at all levels. We are aware of how our planet’s climate situation and the seemingly fixed economic growth ideology are closely interwoven and quickly can lead to armed conflicts and war. Therefore, the extension of our mission to the three areas of Peace, Development, and Environment is a logical process that allows higher perspectives. The world is now up against significant challenges, and the inhabitants of our planet are facing perhaps the most important choice of direction of all time. The world peace organization, the United Nations, has pointed out the predominant problems and has highlighted three primary goals: PEACE , DEVELOPMENT , and ENVIRONMENT . 10 Photo: © 2015 ESIH, Haiti / IKBM Sprl, Belgium M AY 2 0 1 8 HUMAN FUTURES 11