Success stories
Since 1984 Friends of the Earth Cymru has had many victories in protecting
the environment of Wales.
Working with FOE local groups and communities across Wales some of
our successes include:
Protecting habitats
- 1992 - first bilingual petition presented to Parliament signed
by 19,000 people against opencast coal mining
- 1993 - revealed the threat of Interim Development Orders -
‘planning timebombs' in some of our most sensitive landscapes from
old mineral permissions
- 1995 - working with Newport Friends of the Earth to stop the
Usk barrage which would have directly threatened the ecology of the
river Usk
- 1996 - published first environmental report into the environmental
effects of the Sea Empress oil spill
- 1997 - Pembrokeshire Islands and Milford Haven Special Area
of Conservation finally submitted to Europe following a Friends of the
Earth Cymru complaint to the European Commission
- 2000 - massive theme park ‘Legend Court' near Newport
stopped
Stopping pollution
- 1992 - revealing the scandal of "unknown" contaminated
sites in Wales
- 1994 - planning permission for a huge landfill at Aberthaw
which would have contaminated local ground water refused by the Welsh
Office
- 1995 - complaint to the EU by Friends of the Earth Cymru and
Friends of Cardigan Bay about the failure of the UK Government to implement
EU regulations on Environmental Impact Assessments in relation to offshore
oil and gas upheld
- 1997 - medical waste incinerator rejected on Anglesey
- 1997 - working with Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth and
local environmental groups plans to import and burn orimulsion "the
world's filthiest fuel" by National Power in Pembrokeshire stopped
Campaigning for sustainable transport
- 1998 - Crickhowell and Bethesda bypasses defeated
- 2004 - A40 dualling from St Clears to Haverfordwest deferred
Campaigning for renewable energy
- 2002 - Tir Mostyn wind farm approved after local group Vale
of Clwyd Friends of the Earth and Friends of the Earth Cymru give evidence
at inquiry
- 2003 - National Assembly for Wales votes to aim for Wales to
produce 10% of its electricity demand from renewables by 2010 after
Friends of the Earth Cymru campaigning
- 2004 - Application for 30 turbine wind farm at Scarweather
Sands, Swansea Bay approved after Friends of the Earth Cymru campaign
Campaigning for a GM free Wales
- 1999 - Two GM crop trails stopped in Monmouthshire after Friends
of the Earth Cymru and Chepstow raise concerns
- 2000 - GM free Wales motion campaigned for and written by Friends
of the Earth Cymru passed by the National Assembly for Wales 54 - 0
- 2002 - No GM trials announced for Wales
- 2002 - After Friends of the Earth Cymru pressure the Assembly
Government agrees to oppose UK Government plans to remove the public's
right of hearing on GM safety issues before crops are approved for sale
- 2004 - Application for marketing of GM maize ChardonLL is withdrawn
after Assembly Government refuses to determine it until laws to prevent
contamination are in place
Promoting sustainable development
- 1998 - along with other environmental groups lobbied successfully
for a duty to promote sustainable development to be enshrined in the
Government of Wales Act 1998 for the Welsh Assembly.
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