We know that there are a lot of monks who aren’t naturally talented in meditation and would be better off serving the community. Apparently the monasteries acted as education centers for the villages in earlier times. In Vietnam, they go to the other extreme from the meditation role, where the main function of the monks is to serve the people; I think the ideal lies somewhere in the middle. Because the forest is fundamental to meditation, monks who are active in ecology are in fact teaching dhamma. From the suttas it's abundantly clear that meditation cannot proceed without the forest as starting point and ongoing support.
Somewhere in the middle sounds good, and is the heart of Buddha Dhamma. It takes great skill to learn how to delegate people properly and oneself, from Sanskrit sources I could explain it better and I am not to sure of the Pali so forgive me for borrowing from another a langue, in Sanskrit swadharma or ones own inherent nature that if followed and perfected leads to liberation swaraja or Self government, then the person will be acting spontaneously in wisdom and knows when to eat sleep, help others ad rest and retreat.
It seems that finding this balance is the hardest part, but once found gives the greatest benefits.
I personally feel that Buddhist who represent an enlightened culture should be the front runner of many of these schemes, to protect the environment, self sufficiency and the greatest mind scientists, all with an altruistic spirit and awareness of the whole.
I agree that lay Buddhist should be the front-runner of these schemes but not the Buddhist monks.
There are many roles played by a Buddhist monk but the core objective of a Buddhist monk is not to run schemes.
I have never really studied the vinaya so I cant comment on some of the details, although I do feel that tradition and rules may hinder social involment, espcially when it comes to altruistic, social and environmental welfare work. I accept that Ordained monks will play a specific role and it will depend on how one would understand or translate what a scheme is. I am just using it in terms of a socially or environmentally beneficial project, I am not sure why Monks would not want to actively promote this.
If we go by the opening link to this thread I would say this is a great initiative/scheme started by monks where the general Buddhist would be more inspired to carry this out and continue it. Monks generally have a lot of power, some dont seem to have a problem to get involved in politics so why would they refrain from taking some active role in altruistic and environmental activities.
Two wrongs do not add up to one right.