interactive map: forty years of struggles and successes

In July 2009, people from towns in North Ayrshire, on the West Coast of Scotland, decided it was time to get active. Faced with plans for a new coal-fired power station on their doorstep they had a big struggle ahead of them. They formed a campaign group, ‘Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston’ (CONCH) and worked with Friends of the Earth Scotland and other groups to oppose the power station.

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Just a few short years ago the German government planned to build some 30 new coal-fired power plants across the country, even though Chancellor Angela Merkel and then Minister for the Environment Sigmar Gabriel were busy promoting Germany internationally as a climate pioneer. Friends of the Earth Germany sought to have these plans halted.

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Friends of the Earth Nigeria/Environmental Rights Action have been campaigning for many years to stop Shell’s wasteful and polluting practices. Besides raising Nigerian citizens’ awareness they have also been using legal channels to force oil companies in Nigeria to clean up their operations.

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Friends of the Earth Costa Rica/COECOCEIBA was part of a national platform of various types of organisations, including environmentalists’ and peasants’ organisations, who worked with local communities in the northern zone of the country. They had been collectively campaigning against opening up the northern region to mining for 17 years.

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For more than a decade, Friends of the Earth Japan has worked closely with local communities in the Philippines, who opposed – and have since suffered the impacts of – the construction of the San Roque Dam (as part of the San Roque Multi-purpose Project). The dam was funded by the Japanese government.

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In 1979 Friends of the Earth saw an opportunity to influence the Spanish government, and became an NGO observer to the International Whaling Commission. This allowed it to exert pressure at both the national and international levels, which was a new approach for the Spanish ecological movement. 200,000 people signed up in support of a moratorium against whale hunting in 1981, proposed by an alliance of organisations including Friends of the Earth.

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On 31 October 2004, in a landmark decision, 64.7% of Uruguayans voted for a Constitutional Reform in Defence of Water. Water was thus included in the country’s constitution as a human right, which paved the way for its public, participatory and sustainable management.

The referendum was put forward by the National Commission in Defence of Water and Life (CNDAV), of which Friends of the Earth Uruguay/REDES is an active member.

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The dry, remote areas of northern Ghana have long been plagued by tribal conflicts, social upheaval, food insecurity, high illiteracy rates, widespread poverty and environmental degradation. The poor quality of life forces many young people, particularly women, to leave in search of menial work in the south of the country.

In view of these challenges, Friends of the Earth Ghana set up a project called ‘Peaceful and Sustainable Development’ aimed at creating sustainable and meaningful local employment.

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Farmers and environmentalists in Australia are not natural allies, but Friends of the Earth and farmers have bridged the divide as they take action to oppose the expansion of coal and coal seam gas mining.

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At the beginning of the 1990s a new threat challenged our environment and heath: genetically modified crops and food. Friends of the Earth Europe reacted very early to this new attempt by a few agribusiness corporations to impose their products and increase their control of the food chain.

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Friends of the Earth Uruguay/REDES is part of an alliance that has been built up to recover and defend native seeds, together with the Association of Organic Farmers of Uruguay (APODU) and the Southern Regional Centre (CRS) of the Agronomy School at the University of the Republic.

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FoE Mozambique/Justiça Ambiental (JA!) has been campaigning with communities in the Zambezi River Basin for more than nine years, to address the impacts of the existing Cahora Bassa dam and to stop the construction of the proposed Mphnada Nkuwa dam.

For a poor country like Mozambique, where less than 14% of the people have access to electricity, investing over US$2 billion dollars in a project primarily intended to export to energy-hungry South Africa, not only ignores the needs of the country, but forces the poorest of the poor to cover the costs.

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Friends of the Earth Philippines/LRC-KsK has worked with and actively supported indigenous peoples and rural communities suffering the impacts of mining for many years. Mining depletes non-renewable resources, and has massive societal and environmental impacts, yet the Philippine government’s legislation and policies have remained largely pro-mining since 1995, when the Philippine Mining Act was passed.

However, working collaboratively, civil society, including Friends of the Earth Philippines, has helped to develop and promote a new Minerals Management Bill, which seeks to scrap the present Mining Act of 1995.

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"Adapt the city to cars", by building urban highways: this was George Pompidou’s project, symbolised in late 1971 by the desire to create a highway on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. In opposition to this, Friends of the Earth believes that this worship of the car turns city streets into deathtraps for cyclists and causes real pollution affecting all the city’s inhabitants, who have to suffer the fumes and noise.

In 1977, during the local electoral campaign, Friends of the Earth France campaigned for the creation of an urban traffic plan in Paris that incorporated bicycle paths and required the provision of municipal bicycles.

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On 11 March 2011 the Norwegian government decided to hold off on oil activity in the areas of Lofoten, Vesterålen and Senja in the North of Norway. This decision was a major victory for Friends of the Earth Norway/Norges Naturvernforbund and the rest of the environmental movement, who have been campaigning on the issue for years.

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The Andean glaciers, critical ‘solid water reservoirs’, are melting because of climate change. They are also being threatened by open-pit mining projects. Friends of the Earth Argentina and several other organisations have been campaigning for laws to provide greater protection to glaciers and protect the climate in general.

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Friends of the Earth South Africa/groundWork is actively supporting the waste pickers in their endeavours. In particular, they lobbied the South African government to help the waste pickers gain recognition in the National Environmental Management Waste Act of 2009, as legitimate stakeholders that provide a benefit to South African society. This was the first time the wastepickers had received any recognition within national legislation.

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Cyprus constitutes one of the most important migratory routes for birds in Europe. The island hosts 385 bird species, 332 of which are migratory. Although the use of non-selective bird trapping methods is illegal according to both Cypriot and European legislation, every year millions of birds are trapped and killed by poachers.

Friends of the Earth Cyprus has been assessing the impacts of poaching for many years and has launched several public awareness campaigns.

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In 1998, about 10,000 indigenous people were evicted from their original homeland to a resettlement site in the Asap River (Sungai Asap). The resettlement process has been fraught with problems that have yet to be resolved.

However, five longhouse communities representing some 100 families refused to move, and seven of their leaders filed a representative action against the State Government of Sarawak in 2000 through Friends of the Earth Malaysia/SAM’s lawyers.

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Friends of the Earth (England Wales & Northern Ireland) secured the introduction of the UK’s 2008 Climate Change act – a world first that commits the UK to legally binding cuts in greenhouse gases – as a result of its Big Ask campaign. Other countries are following the UK’s lead and introducing their own legislation.

In 2009, the group delivered seminars with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its Department of Energy and Climate Change to promote the act across Europe, complementing the campaigns of other Friends of the Earth groups. In 2011, new laws are expected to be agreed in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Ireland.

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In 2005, Friends of the Earth El Salvador/CESTA began a campaign to inform the public about transnational corporations operating in their country. This included the corporations’ plans, projects, areas of operation, and the social-ecological impacts they generate.

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Since 2003, Friends of the Earth Cameroon/CED, the Forest People’s Project and the Rainforest Foundation have been supporting the Bagyeli 'pygmies' in documenting their use of the forest and its resources to lobby and advocate for the recognition of the land rights of Bagyeli people at the local and national level.

Friends of the Earth South Korea/Korean Federation of Environmental Movements (KFEM) staunchly opposes large development projects that threaten natural ecosystems, including the so-called Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. This project has nothing to do with restoration. Its main feature is the construction of 20 new dams on the four largest rivers in Korea.

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Friends of the Earth Honduras furthers the movement originally initiated by the community leaders of COHAPAZ (the Honduran Committee for Action for Peace), with a particular focus on social and environmental justice. It focuses on the grassroots perspective, supporting rural communities affected by mining and quarrying activities and peasant communities affected by agribusiness.

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For the past ten years, the Lappersfort forest on the edge of Bruges has been the site of a symbolic struggle to protect the few pieces of forest left in Flanders, one of the regions in Europe with the least green space and the highest density of motorways and cities. The forest was occupied by activists in 2002, and people spent months living in the trees to defend them from being cut down.

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For the past 25 years, Friends of the Earth US has worked to protect vulnerable people and ecosystems by focusing on the financiers of projects that harm communities, human rights and the environment.

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The Ugandan government began building the Bujagali dam on the River Nile in 2007. The project had previously been delayed for over ten years for many reasons, including exorbitant project costs and its predicted economic and environmental impacts. Friends of the Earth Uganda/NAPE held meetings with the Bujagali dam developers, dam affected communities, civil society organisations, and the World Bank and the AfDB, to agree on mitigation, monitoring and evaluation measures.

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The people of Horqin Sandy Land in Inner Mongolia, China, have traditionally lived from the land. However, overgrazing, increased agriculture and deforestation over the past decades due to the population boom in China has put great pressure on grasslands. In reaction to this situation, Friends of the Earth Japan began working with a village in the Horquin Sandy Land area in a project called ‘Greening the Desert’.

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In May 2009, citizens formed a group called 'Nej til CO2-lagring', ('No to CO2-storage'). They contacted Friends of the Earth Denmark/NOAH to draw on their expertise on CCS. Late in 2009 the company behind the plans announced that they would postpone their CCS plans in Denmark "until the technology is commercially available".

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From 1992-1994, Friends of the Earth Costa Rica, together with communities and local organisations from the Osa peninsula in southern Costa Rica, developed a strong campaign to denounce and oppose transnational company Stone Container’s plans to grow 20,000 hectares of Gmelina arborea monoculture tree plantations.

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Spain is the only country in Europe that cultivates genetically modified (GM) crops on a large scale. The anti-GM movement, which also involves Friends of the Earth Spain's local groups, has already seen some significant campaign victories. The Balearic Islands has been declared a GMO-free zone, and there has been strong resistance in many regions such as Galicia and Madrid.

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In 2006 Indonesia's largest cement company received governmental permission for exploratory mining activities in a historical region of Central Java. Friends of the Earth Indonesia/WALHI, supporting the communities’ strong opposition, filed an administrative lawsuit against the mining permit in the Semarang Administrative Court, which was won at appeal at the Supreme Court.

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On a rainy November day in 2007, one hundred local activists gathered in front of the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest, and placed 1,500 painted wooden tiles on the ground, forming a large, colourful mosaic in the form of a map of Hungary. This was the final action of Friends of the Earth Hungary/MTVSZ’s ‘Climate Protection Now’ campaign, marking the successful culmination of a two-year struggle for a radical national climate change strategy.

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In the early 1990s, Friends of the Earth Colombia/Censat Agua Viva was invited to the municipality of Cerrito in north-east Colombia, by communities concerned about a mining company exploring for anthracite coal in the Páramo el Almorzadero. The locals knew little about coal but they understood that their rich waters, flowing from the páramo, were threatened.

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It is an absurdity of the global market that most of the fish eaten in Togo comes through Europe, while many of the country’s coastal fisherfolk are no longer able to sustain themselves by fishing. Friends of the Earth Togo is campaigning to convince the people to buy locally caught fish rather than cheaper foreign imports. They are also educating local fisherfolk about the importance of using alternative nets which allow the young fish to escape back into the sea where they can later breed.

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Friends of the Earth Ukraine helped to organise a local action group, and called a meeting in April 2000, to protest against a car battery plant that was infringing the local community's environmental and human rights. Over 1,000 people turned up, including plant management, who angered the crowd by asserting that the plant was no more dangerous than a “bread shop”.

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"On the long road to land justice, Barmah-Millewa has always been a beacon for Yorta Yorta people. Over the past decade Friends of the Earth have walked this road with us, becoming a trusted ally and true friend. Together we’ve notched up a great milestone with the creation of Barmah-Millewa National Park, creating a cultural and ecological foundation for Yorta Yorta into the future."

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Global shipping has the largest impact on those living closest to ports, especially indigenous people and poor coastal communities. With approximately 70 per cent of global shipping emissions occurring within 250 miles of shore, people in these communities struggle with disproportionately high rates of cancer, respiratory disease and premature death. Friends of the Earth US has spent the past ten years fighting to improve the lives of affected communities. Their work has been crucial in limiting harmful air pollution from ships.

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The Environmental Education Centre of ‘As Corcerizas’ has been created by Friends of the Earth Spain over the course of eight years. It reflects the constructive character of Friends of the Earth Spain, and represents a fundamental resource for developing the association’s policies, demonstrating that real alternatives are possible, and that people can see them in action.

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Peasant and indigenous communities in Latin America are struggling against transnational companies and the ‘development’ agenda of global actors, in order to protect and nurture their lands, territory, water, resources, health, ways of life and rights. In 2008 FoE Guatemala also launched ‘La Ruta del Oro’ on the impact of mining in Guatemala, and distributed 2,000 copies among communities that were preparing their own consultation processes.

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Friends of the Earth Switzerland has been very successful in raising the topic of planning and its impact on land use, soil resources, biodiversity loss, urban sprawl and greenhouse gas emissions. They are pushing for a national referendum proposing new legislation to ensure that land is used sustainably, that agricultural land is preserved and used exclusively for food production.

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