VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has begun drafting an encyclical on ecology.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the document was still very much in its early stages and that no publication date has been set. He said it would be about ecology and more specifically the “ecology of man.”

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, dubbed the “green pope” for his environmental concerns, used the term “ecology of man” to describe not only how people must defend and respect nature but how the nature of the person — masculine and feminine as created by God — must also be defended.

Francis, for his part, has frequently lamented today’s wasteful culture. In his homily at his March 19 installation, he called for the faithful to protect creation and “God’s plan inscribed in nature.”