funding

About 15 percent of the funding for Friends of the Earth International’s activities comes from the membership dues paid by the member groups, which contribute a percentage of their income on the basis of their revenue from two years ago to the international network.

This core funding is used to cover the operational costs of the Secretariat. The other approximately 85 percent of our income is subsidies received from government agencies and foundations (for details see financials ). These funds are granted to us for specific projects and campaigns and for our Membership Support Fund.

The objectives of our Membership Support Fund are network development, capacity building, strengthening national campaigns and increasing participation in international campaigns. In 2003, nearly 500,000 Euro was distributed among member groups from this fund for projects including the following:

• supporting climate alliance building in latin america . Friends of the Earth Argentina is coordinating initiatives by communities and other groups in the region to demand strong national emission reduction targets and address the ‘carbon debt’. Funded by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
• monitoring illegal logging in cameroon Friends of the Earth Cameroon is tracking the unsustainable and often illegal logging of the country’s tropical rainforest by foreign companies. Funded by DGIS-TMF.
• gmos out of africa. Following the rejection of GM food aid by southern African governments, Friends of the Earth Nigeria hosted an African strategy meeting on GMOs and food aid to build alliances and coordinate campaigns. Funded by the Rausing Trust and Novib/Oxfam Netherlands.
• community input into extractive industries review . Friends of the Earth groups in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, working with mining-affected communities, played active roles in the World Bank initiated Extractive Industries Review ( see article ). Funded by ICCO.
• community training and mobilization in malaysia . Friends of the Earth Malaysia worked with indigenous communities in Sarawak to protect their lands, their rights and their ways of life from threats posed by corporate loggers and miners. Funded by IUCN, Novib/Oxfam Netherlands and Hivos.
• no más daños in paraguay. Friends of the Earth Paraguay and affected communities campaigned against an additional loan for the destructive Yacyretá mega dam from the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. Funded by the Rausing Trust.
• community partnerships in the philippines. Friends of the Earth Philippines gathered activists from 44 communities throughout the country in order to discuss common issues including commercial forestry, water and energy privatization, mining, gender and the implementation of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act. Funded by the Rausing Trust.
• supporting people, not corporations, in slovakia. Friends of the Earth Slovakia is campaigning to shift the government’s channeling of public funds away from corporations and towards underdeveloped regions and marginalized social groups. Funded by our low income membership support fund.