Friends of the Earth International
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Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is a federation of autonomous environmental grassroots organizations from around the world. FoEI is the world's largest grassroots environmental federation, uniting 71 diverse national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With approximately 1.5 million members and supporters around the world, FoEI campaigns on today's most urgent environmental and social issues. FoEI challenges the current model of economic and corporate globalization, and promote solutions that will help to create environmentally sustainable and socially just societies.
FoEI's decentralized and democratic structure allows all member groups to participate in decision-making. FoEI strives for gender equity in all of their campaigns and structures. Its international positions are informed and strengthened by their work with communities, and their alliances with indigenous peoples, farmers' movements, trade unions, human rights groups and others.
In contrast to many other NGOs operating internationally, Friends of the Earth is structured from the bottom up as a federation of autonomous groups. Each country has its own separate organization, which in many cases existed and campaigned in its own right before choosing to affiliate with the global federation. The term Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) refers to the network of groups. FoEI is assisted by a small International Secretariat (based in Amsterdam) who provide support for FoEI and its agreed major campaigns and activities.The Executive Committee of elected representatives from national groups set policy and oversee the work of the secretariat.
FoEI VISION: Our vision is of a peaceful and sustainable world based on societies living in harmony with nature. We envision a society of interdependent people living in dignity, wholeness and fulfilment in which equity and human and peoples' rights are realized. This will be a society built upon peoples' sovereignty and participation. It will be founded on social, economic, gender and environmental justice and free from all forms of domination and exploitation, such as neoliberalism, corporate globalization, neo-colonialism and militarism.
FoEI MISSION 1. To collectively ensure environmental and social justice, human dignity, and respect for human rights and peoples' rights so as to secure sustainable societies. 2. To halt and reverse environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, nurture the earth's ecological and cultural diversity, and secure sustainable livelihoods. 3. To secure the empowerment of indigenous peoples, local communities, women, groups and individuals, and to ensure public participation in decision making. 4. To bring about transformation towards sustainability and equity between and within societies with creative approaches and solutions. 5. To engage in vibrant campaigns, raise awareness, mobilize people and build alliances with diverse movements, linking grassroots, national and global struggles. 6. To inspire one another and to harness, strengthen and complement each other's capacities, living the change we wish to see and working together in solidarity.
More detail about the national organizations and their campaigns can be found in the article Friends of the Earth.
early history
(source: http://www.foei.org)Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) was founded in 1971 by four organizations from France, Sweden, England and the USA. Today's federation of 68 groups grew from annual meetings of environmentalists from different countries who agreed to campaign together on certain crucial issues, such as nuclear energy and whaling.
In 1981, a small International Secretariat was set up, initially staffed by volunteers, which rotated from country to country. By 1983, the organization had grown to 25 members, and an Executive Committee was elected to oversee the issues worked on between meetings.
In 1986, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) was hosted for the first time by an organization from the South, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (FoE Malaysia). At that time, the federation had 31 members from all over the world which were fully involved in the environment and development debate, and clearly recognized the need to change lifestyle and consumption patterns in the North.
In the meantime, in 1985, the European members of FoEI set up a regional coordinating body of their own, FoE Europe, with an office in Brussels. Among other work, FoE Europe has been responsible for a pioneering programme to strengthen the environmental movement in Eastern Europe.
The 1994 AGM decided that international cooperation should be further intensified through the development of an 'agenda' that presents common points of view within a coherent framework. In the past years, this agenda has been further clarified and implemented in a variety of publications, projects, campaigns, and international fora within the framework of the Sustainable Societies Programme.
There are now 68 Friends of the Earth member groups which are campaigning internationally, nationally and locally to protect the environment and create sustainable societies. They are united by the common conviction that environmentally sustainable development requires both strong grassroots activism and effective national and international campaigning.
In 2002, the combined number of members and supporters of Friends of the Earth groups was more than one million, and the FoEI umbrella united more than 5,000 local activists groups. Together, the 70 FoE groups employed approximately 1,200 staff members.
more on the early years
"FoEI is a campaigning organization. Our strength is in our ability to motivate people. We call upon the public to change not only their minds, but also their habits and activities. We ask them to put pressure on decision-makers to provide the necessary measures to protect the environment. We do not avoid contentious issues, and we do not seek to avoid conflict." -- Second FoEI Chair John Hontelez, 1992In 1969, the Executive Director of the US Sierra Club resigned out of frustration that the organization neglected to tackle nuclear issues, or even to work internationally. This visionary man was called David Brower, and he explained: Realising it was time to stop working toward a moon-like earth, I started a new organization. We fished around for a name, and came up with Friends of the Earth. It was essential that it be international in scope. With meetings in London, Paris and Stockholm, we were able to convince environmental people in three more countries to let the FoE idea migrate. Other countries now in the FoE network were courted, or courted us, and in no time the sun was rising somewhere on a FoE group. We made it a point not to be clearly organized or directed by some old tired formula from the top. Find good people with the right ideas and let them move ahead their way." (1995)
So-called 'environmental people' from France, Great Britain, Sweden and the United States founded FoEI in Roslagen, Sweden in 1971. These first gatherings were passionate, multicultural exchanges of concerns and ideas. According to Richard Sandbrook, an early FoE activist from Britain, "The start of Friends of the Earth, and indeed of FoEI, was romantic to be sure, but it was also very hit and miss and mundane. Day by day you never knew where the money was coming from, nor who would take the slightest notice of what we did."
Early meetings resulted in a unanimous decision to oppose nuclear power on the global level. In subsequent years, FoEI advanced to the forefront of the anti-nuclear movement, and thanks to the expertise of energy guru Amory Lovins became known for groundbreaking work on energy alternatives. Devastating accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986 increased the number of FoE groups strenuously opposing nuclear energy.
"Ten years ago, I went to my first meeting of Friends of the Earth International. I recall a babble of accents, a kaleidoscope of ideas, views and strategies. The spectrum of resources at our command ranged from modest to tiny. Could this small, motley crew help save the earth? But I also remember the words of a Japanese member tumbling out so fast we had to ask her to slow down. She was pleading passionately, not for an issue in her own country, but for Pacific islanders threatened by nuclear testing. Not just their crisis: ours, too. Citizens' groups such as FoEI can reach across geographical and cultural boundaries, to act together in a way that our governments have so often failed to do." -- First FoEI Chair Mairi MacArthur in 'Save the Earth' by Jonathon Porrit, 1991.
Throughout the 1970s, FoEI gathered allies in many countries and created a strong and critical presence in various international environmental negotiations. FoEI's unique position on whaling, for example, which urged the protection of whale species without the destruction of traditional human livelihoods, enjoyed a rare success after a decade of campaigning with the International Whaling Commission's 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling. FoE representatives also exhibited their talents for enlightened thinking with the publication of ECO, a daily NGO bulletin produced in collaboration with The Ecologist magazine, at the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. ECO has since appeared at numerous other global fora on issues ranging from whaling to energy, and continues to provide NGOs and governments alike with essential and insightful analyses.
foei today
FoEI's global reputation was solidified in the 1990s. Parallel to the emergence of ever more global social and environmental problems, the federation has embraced a rapidly increasing number of member groups, and older groups have become stronger. FoE groups must conform to specific membership criteria, and members regularly assess themselves in light of these requirements. Annual General Meetings, the earliest of which were brainstorming sessions for a small group of Europeans and North Americans, have developed into week-long, highly-structured events covering multiple topics and attended by women and men from South, North, East and West. With a total of 68 member groups worldwide in 2002, FoEI has at last become a global force for environmental and social change.FoEI's potential was brandished at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where a vocal mosaic of FoE groups critiqued the business-as-usual approach of governments and corporations attending the meeting. FoE Netherlands also used Rio as the stage to introduce its groundbreaking Action Plan for a Sustainable Netherlands, a first step in the popularization of the concepts of 'environmental space' and equity. Sustainable Netherlands has since given birth to the Towards Sustainable Europe Campaign and the North-South Project -- both of which fall under the umbrella of FoEI's Sustainable Societies Programme.
Like any other organization, FoEI enters rough waters from time to time. Campaigns and projects are often frustrated by lack of funding, and the Secretariat has survived several lean seasons. FoE member organizations suffer in varying degrees from insufficient infrastructure, lack of staff, and crippling workloads. When groups become overwhelmed by national problems, international communication may falter. Differing analyses and strategies can result in divisive or deadlocked discussions, and necessary bureaucratic business can consume valuable time during international meetings. The lack of clear progress in many campaign areas, and the simultaneous proliferation of environmental damage and social misery can dishearten and demotivate activists. And for some, environmental activism can prove dangerous and even fatal, as the mysterious deaths of four top FoE Costa Rica campaigners in 1994-95 tragically proved.
Much of the momentum behind FoEI's campaigning is surely provided by the personal contact, solidarity and inspiration that the federation provides. It is also heartening to imagine that if current trends continue, FoEI's ideas will probably meet with greater political acceptance in coming years. One push in that direction should come via FoEI's Council of Patrons, which unites prominent thinkers, activists and celebrities who support the work of the federation. It can only be hoped that each coming day in FoEI's existence makes us stronger, and brings us closer to truly sustainable societies.
Excerpted from FoEI's 25th anniversary publication: 25 years for the planet, for people, 1996.
activities
climate change
calling for urgent action to stop humans intensifying climate change. foei demands for Climate Justice, with emission reductions in the industrialised world, protection of the most vulnerable who already suffer the effects of climate change & legal challenges against the worst polluters.corporates
dismantling the power of corporations. calling for rights for communities & citizens to choose their local economies & to hold corporations legally accountable for bad practices. foei challenge the powerful role of corporations in institutions like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the UN system & the World Economic Forum.genetically modified organisms
support the right of countries to ban or restrict the introduction of Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMOs). foei believes that countries have the right to decide what they want to eat, & supports sustainable agricultural practices & food sovereignty in order to avoid food crises in the first place.forests
caliing for a halt to machine-intensive corporate logging & the conversion of forests to agriculture & pastures. foei opposes "carbon sinks" & other schemes that replace diverse forests with tree plantations. foei works towards assisting local comunities & indigenous peoples to control their forests in their traditional sustainable way.international financial institutions
to see an end to taxpayers' money being used by public institutions like the World Bank & Export Credit Agencies to subsidize destructive oil, mining & gas projects & to stop public money being used to finance privatization of water & other essential services.trade, environment and sustainable societies
campaigning to replace corporate globalization with fair & sustainable economies, based on democracy, diversity, reduced consumption, cooperation & caution. foei works with others to curb the power & scope of the World Trade Organization & other regional & bilateral trade liberalization agreements.core themes
foei works on promoting gender equality, protecting human & environmental rights, protecting the planet's disappearing biodiversity, the repayment of ecological debt owed by rich countries to those they have exploited for their own economic benefit.gender
FOEI’s commitments to increasing public participation and democratic decision-making, and to "driving social transformation and securing sustainable, gender just and equitable societies” shows that the federation actively seeks to transform the prevailing gender system that institutionalizes unequal power relations between women and men at every level of individual and collective human relations.environmental rights
FoEI members around the world campaign for people’s environmental rights, which include access to the unspoiled natural resources that enable survival such as land, shelter, food, water and air. In the FoEI vision, environmental rights also include rights for indigenous peoples and other collectivities, the right to information and participation in decision-making, freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to resist unwanted developments. FoEI also believes in the right to claim reparations for violated rights, including rights for climate refugees and others displaced due to environmental destruction, the right to claim ecological debt, and the right to environmental justice.biodiversity
Friends of the Earth campaigns against biopiracy and the patenting of seeds and other life forms, and for the rights of farmers and Indigenous Peoples' to save their own seeds. FoEI believes that the rights of people to control their own resources and food sovereignty must be respected in order to halt the loss of the world's natural wealth.ecological debt
For decades, northern countries have helped themselves to the natural riches of Latin America, Asia and Africa in order to fuel an unsustainable economic growth. FoEI believes that everyone is entitled to a fair share of environmental space, and that the affluent North needs to curb its consumption so that the rest of the world can develop sustainably.other areas of work
desertification: The conversion of productive rangeland or cropland into desert through intensive land use (overgrazing, agriculture) and climate change is fast reaching epic proportions. Friends of the Earth has been involved in the struggle against desertification for many years, and is committed to promoting more sustainable and equitable approaches to land use.antarctica: The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) was founded in 1978 by FoEI, WWF and other environmental organizations in order to provide a mechanism for the public to monitor and participate in meetings of the Antarctic Treaty System. ASOC now includes over 240 organizations in 40 countries and leads the national and international campaigns to protect the biological diversity and pristine wilderness of Antarctica, including its oceans and marine life. ASOC campaign teams attend all meetings of the Antarctic Treaty system as accredited expert observers, and are able to put on the table detailed proposals for change as well as commenting on all government proposals. Presently there are ASOC campaigners in Chile (covering Latin America), Netherlands (covering Europe and focusing on implementation of the Environment Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty), Spain (coordinating ASOC's work on fisheries and marine protected areas), Korea (covering Japan, Korea and China), South Africa (covering southern Africa), Australia (covering that region and focusing on regulation of commercial tourism), and Washington, DC. The campaign team also is active on CITES (to gain protected status for Antarctic Toothfish) and the International Whaling Commission (to support the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary).
maritime: The Maritime Campaign aims to improve the environmental performance of worldwide shipping by lobbying the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) - the maritime bureau of the United Nations. Shipping is responsible for polluting land, air, and water, even though it could be a very clean mode of transport. To achieve clean shipping in the future we need an integrated approach. Standards for the future should be set today. The Maritime Campaign is coordinated by the Dutch-based North Sea Foundation.
links
friends of the earth international links
- [FoEI official website]
- [International Secretariat]
- [FoEI campaigns]
- [FoEI groups worldwide]
- [FoEI Affiliates]
- [FoEI great resource publications]
- [FoEI Press area]
- [FoEI actions page, support their work!]
other links
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