Friends of the Earth

Description

Friends of the Earth International is a grassroots environmental federation with more than 70 national member groups and millions of members and supporters worldwide.

It campaigns on urgent environmental and social issues, challenging the current model of economic and corporate globalisation and promoting environmentally sustainable, socially just alternatives. Current campaign priorities include climate justice and energy, economic justice, food sovereignty, forests and biodiversity, and gender justice. It also works on issues such as waste and overconsumption, international financial institutions, ecological debt, mining and extractive industries, and opposition to nuclear power. Member groups run their own national campaigns and can also join international ones.

The network was founded in 1969 in San Francisco and became an international federation in 1971, when representatives from four countries first met. About half its member groups use the Friends of the Earth name in their own language, while others, joining as independent organisations, keep their own names. It is supported by a secretariat based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and an executive committee elected by member groups at a general meeting held every two years, which sets policy and oversees the secretariat’s work.