Bulgaria
Za Zemiata (For the Earth in English) is a Bulgarian environmental non-governmental organisation determined to work for self-sustainable lifestyles, for responsible personal and political decisions for our planet, while combating exploitation of people and nature.
We are based in Sofia, but working in cooperation with citizen groups throughout the country as well as with civil society organisations all over Europe, depending on the location and scope of the environmental conflict.
We also have a substantial volunteer group of more than 800 supporters who participate in our field projects, help in information campaigns, mobilise for direct action and lend a hand with office work.
Za Zemiata currently runs campaigns and projects on the following topics:
- Climate
change, including work on the National Climatic Strategy as well as
involvement in the international climate debate at EU level.
- Environmental
education at national level in secondary schools on the topics of
climate change, energy efficiency, food sovereignty, waste
minimisation, ecological construction materials and techniques.
- Food independence
with focus on sustainable food production, biological agriculture and
the set up of food cooperatives. As part of the food independence we
are active in an anti GMO campaign at the national level.
- Aid for trade in
the context of food production and distribution dealing with harmful
subsidies, international trade agreements and the globalisation of
supermarkets and their negative impact on local development.
- Resource and energy
efficiency at national and EU level aiming to direct EU public
finance at energy and resource efficient projects, to pave the way
for more community led projects on energy efficiency and to
influence national energy policies towards environmentally
responsible thinking and decision-making.
- Clean energy campaign promoting
the use and growth of renewable energy sources and technologies while
campaigning against fossil-based power production from coal, oil, gas
and nuclear.
- Responsible extractive industries and local development focusing
on gold mining conflicts in Bulgaria and the Balkans, but also
dealing with environmental problems associated with the closure of
uranium mining in Bulgaria.
- Zero waste is a campaign based on a strategy combining community practice, reuse, repair, recycling, disposal and composting with industrial practices such as eliminating toxins and changes in packaging design in order to establish a sustainable waste management policy in practice in the long run.
Our work is funded almost entirely by fundraising through grants applications with national and international private and public foundations, EU funds and donations by supporters.
