The way society deals with its sewage is indicative of its commitment to sustainability, a South African academic has told a gathering of theologians in Brazil in advance of the World Social Forum.

The ecological destruction of the Amazon region poses a serious threat to the planet, former Brazilian environmental minister Marina Silva has warned as the World Social Forum begins.

Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, once a thorn in the side of the Vatican, is now on a mission to convince humanity of the desperate need to change its relationship to the environment.

Theologians from around the world are converging on Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon River in northeast Brazil, to develop a theology for the "sustainability of life on Earth".

The general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), the Rev Dr Mvume Dandala, has used the occasion of a major theological conference to call for practical steps towards reconciliation and peace in conflict-torn Somalia.