Krista Stryker

Zagreb, Croatia, Sept 23, 2009 -- The Croatian Ministry of the Environment, Spatial Planning and Construction has launched a case at the Court of Offences in Zagreb against the biggest Croatian Environmental NGO,  Zelena akcija/Friends of the Earth Croatia, threatening its closure with a fine of 50.000 to 110.000 euros for a peaceful protest action held in front of the Ministry on 12th March 2009.

The action consisted of a small group of activists exhibiting empty cans of paint and varnish in the shape of a question mark for 7 hours in front of the Ministry to protest at the Ministry's failure to implement the Waste Act and provide collection points for waste paint. The Ministry, however, in its statement described it as illegal dumping of waste, which carries a fine of 50.000 to 110.000 euros - a sum which would bankrupt the NGO.

Ironically, the action was successful and led to the provision of free waste paint disposal services at the recycling yards in Zagreb.

"The Ministry must drop the court case immediately and concentrate on the real polluters", said Tomislav Tomasevic the President of the Zelena akcija / FoE Croatia. "A fine of 50.000 - 110.000 euros for a peaceful protest action is ridiculous, particularly considering that Croatian oil company INA was fined just 15.000 euros in 2005 for decades of choking air pollution in the city of Sisak, and even then the judge imposing the fine was removed from his position afterwards".

"It is hard to see this court case as anything other than an attempt by the Ministry to silence the biggest and most successful environmental NGO in Croatia," added Jagoda Munic, the Vice-President of the NGO. "It is an embarrassing step backwards for a government which sees itself as leading the country towards EU membership".

Zelena akcija / FoE Croatia also calls on the Prime Minister Ms. Jadranka Kosor to take action against the politically responsible people in the Ministry.

For more information contact:
Tomislav Tomasevic, president of Zelena akcija / FoE Croatia
+385 98 719253, or email tomislav@zelena-akcija.hr

According to a new report launched by Friends of the Earth Europe at the 'World Resources Forum' in Switzerland, Europe is more dependant on imported resources than other global regions.

The extraction and use of natural resources such as food crops, fossil fuels, minerals, agrofuels and timber has major environmental and social impacts. 

• Read the full report here.

Case studies in the report – including of oil extraction in Nigeria and biofuel production in Indonesia - demonstrate some of these impacts. Europe does not just import such materials directly, it also imports them as part of finished products, for example a computer imported from China will have large amounts of resources associated with its production.

Dr Michael Warhurst, who leads Friends of the Earth Europe’s Resources and Consumption campaign, said:

“Europe is using an ever-increasing amount of the world’s resources, and our society is already very dependent on imports of materials – yet we have no targets to reduce this resource use, and new policies are not assessed for their potential to increase our resource efficiency.

Friends of the Earth Europe is calling on the EU to take the first steps to tackle this issue through ensuring that our resource use is measured, and by adopting new policies to increase our resource efficiency, such as higher recycling targets. The EU must also start to devise long term targets and strategies in order to radically reduce our resource use.”

Friends of the Earth Europe and Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) have analysed possible methods of measuring Europe’s resource use, and are proposing that four key aspects be covered: material use (the focus of this report), land use, water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Each of these analyses must properly account for the impacts of  Europe’s consumption on the rest of the world, by incorporating the ‘rucksack’ of the resources used to make products which are imported into Europe.

Dr Warhurst added:

“In order to continue to thrive on this planet, our societies will need to become less resource dependent, so that we are able to protect our natural resource base and the fragile eco-systems on our planet.”

Europe is using more than its fair share of resources, and reducing our consumption will also free more resources to increase the quality of life in the developing world. In addition, a more resource-efficient economy will be a competitive advantage for Europe as resource availability becomes more constrained in the future.”

Read the full report here.

Nearly 15,000 indigenous Guatemalans began a march this week to the country's capital and blockaded roads to demand the suspension of a new mining law, a law they say will be extremely damaging to rural communities.

The indigenous community had previously held consultations where the population expressed their rejection to mining extraction projects, and the new mining law would render these agreements void.

Furthermore, the community of San Juan Sacatepéquez is calling on cement company Holcim-Cementos Progreso to leave their territories. The company aims to install a plant that would start operating in 2012.

Members of the Friends of the Earth Guatemala/CEIBA said the residents that would be affected by the Holcim-Cementos Progreso project are mainly craftspeople and flower harvesters.

They claim that the cement company's plans to “mitigate” the environmental impacts including reforestation with eucalyptus, something that would have even more serious consequences on the water sources.

call to suspend mining licenses

Real World Radio interviewed Alfonso Morales, leader of the Maya Mam organization in Huehuetenango, on the north west border with Mexico. His organization and others calling for an immediate suspension of mining licenses, and for the approval of the Integral Rural Development Law, which promotes the local and peasant economy.

“Thousands of indigenous people have taken to the streets to defend the 25 mining consultations carried out in Huehuetenango”, said Morales. He also expressed concern about the criminalization of local leaders in the area as a result of their outspokenness.

Former presidential candidate and human rights advocate, Rigoberta Menchu, is warning about the possibility that the country's most powerful sectors might orchestrate a coup d'état against President Alvaro Colom due to the current climate of social agitation.

See the photos of the demonstrations here 

Listen to an the interview with Alfonso Morales here on Real World Radio

On April Fools day 2009 Brussels-based environment, development, farming and transparency campaign organizations denounced the EU's continuing contribution to the financial crisis and the limited solutions it advocated at the G20 with a theatre spectacle in front of the European Council.

Politicians and citizens battled their way out of the financial crisis, to the backdrop of a stock-exchange on stilts - all part of "Financial Fools Day", a global day of action on the eve of the G20 meeting in London.

Alex Wilks from the European Network on Debt and Development said:

"The ostrich approach to regulation -- put your head in the sand and hope for the best -- has been exposed as a sham, as many protesters have said for years. European companies and governments bear a big responsibility for the current crisis. Yet EU proposals for the G20 offer little for ordinary citizens in Europe, and the pledges for the world's poorer regions to be announced tomorrow will be a mere drop in the ocean compared to the dramatic impact of the crisis."

Friends of the Earth Europe and the other groups involved are concerned that European governments are bailing out the banks responsible for the crisis without demanding significant regulatory concessions in exchange. European governments are relying on the advice of controversial bankers, continuing to promote further financial services liberalization in trade negotiations, and failing to regulate European-based hedge funds.

Developing countries are being hard hit by the financial and economic crisis, but are being given no additional support by European governments.

Paul de Clerck from Friends of the Earth Europe said:

"We are witnessing not just a financial crisis, but a global systemic crisis with environmental, social, economic and democratic dimensions. Banks need to be held fully accountable for the impacts they have on the environment, food prices, destruction of biodiversity, climate change. To tackle this crisis we need a radical departure from the current economic and social model."

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA) received an award this year from the 2009 Bloomberg Awards for Global Tobacco Control at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Mumbai, India. The group was applauded for monitoring and publicizing tobacco industry activities intended to increase tobacco use and undermine tobacco control efforts.

ERA has extensively monitored and exposed the marketing activities of the tobacco industry. They have faced the industry's numerous attempts to undermine tobacco control policies in Nigeria head-on by exposing the front groups used by the industry to carry out its activities. Furthermore, they have highlighted unfair practices towards tobacco farmers and indifference to child labor.

The award for excellence in monitoring was accepted by Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, Programme Manager, ERA.

"Sadly, Africa is the newest frontier for tobacco companies," Mr. Oluwafemi said.

"Tobacco companies have mapped out the tender lungs of our youth and women as enormous profit  opportunities. This is what ERA is dedicated to resisting."