BACKGROUND
Friends of the Earth is one of the UK's leading pressure groups. Since its launch in 1971 Friends of the Earth has been at the forefront of the struggle to protect the environment, working to protect and improve the conditions for life on Earth, now and for the future. Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland is part of the network of Friends of the Earth International, also set up in 1971 to help national groups work together. It is now the largest international network of environmental groups in the world, active in 66 countries worldwide.

Within a year of its launch Friends of the Earth had attracted over 2,000 members and some 50 local campaigning groups. Our first-ever protest was to dump non-returnable bottles on the doorstep of Schweppes' headquarters, which initiated our campaign for re-use and recycling. Since then Friends of the Earth has expanded and now has around 92,000 members and many more supporters.

We also now have over 200 local groups throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which play a vital role in taking our campaigning message to local audiences. They lobby local authorities and companies and mobilize public opinion. At the other end of the scale we are international campaigners, pursuing our objectives through the European Union, United Nations and international trade bodies.

Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland is made up of two organisations. Friends of the Earth Limited is a campaigning organisation, overseen by a Board of Directors who are elected by the local groups. Friends of the Earth Trust is a registered charity which was set up in 1981 to carry out research and education work. These two organisations are responsible for the overall running of Friends of the Earth.

Over 90% of our income is raised from our supporters; the rest is raised by events, sponsorship, grants and sales of publications and merchandise.

We believe that pressure for change is most effective when people have access to the facts and can arm themselves with all the arguments. That is why we devote enormous resources to research, publishing, education, public information and media work on environmental and related social issues.

We are an independent organisation. We work with all political parties, but are aligned to none.

We have built up a reputation for providing reliable and objective information based on sound research. This means that we are often called on by journalists and policy-makers, and are frequently asked to give evidence on environmental threats to Committees in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. But we not only supply information - we expose environmental abuse and offer constructive solutions to current problems.

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH WORKS IN THREE KEY WAYS TO BRING ABOUT POSITIVE CHANGE:
.    Campaigning - Pressuring Government and business to adopt policies and practices which ensure environmental protection, conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.

.    Citizen action - Activating people and communities locally and nationally to reduce their impact on the environment, and to push government, industry and financial institutions to adopt the environmental agenda.

.    Research and communication - Providing reliable, accessible and provocative information and ideas about environmental problems and their solutions. Researching the state of the environment locally, nationally and globally.

.    Get dangerous chemicals out of our lives with our Safer Chemicals Campaign.
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/safer_chemicals/

.    Put Real Food on everyone's menu. Real Food safeguards wildlife, the environment and your health. http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/food_and_biotechnology/

.    Halt global Climate Change, the single biggest environmental threat facing our planet today. http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/energy_and_climate/

Take a look at our other campaigns on the Living World, Transport and Sustainability at: http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/

RECENTLY, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH HAS:

.    Helped to shape the consumer pressure which has removed GM products from the 'own brand' products of all the major supermarkets.

*    Lobbied for the Warm Homes Act which aims to eradicate fuel poverty for the millions of people in the UK, over half of them elderly, who have been going cold every winter. The Government is now legally required to help them keep warm by funding better insulation and more efficient heating systems.

*    Achieved agreement from the government and newspaper industry that 70% of the paper in our newspapers and magazines will be recycled by 2006.

*    Published ground-breaking research into the links between poverty and pollution.

*    Increased protection for biodiversity in the UK, through our lobbying for the Countryside and Rights of Way Act: providing a lifeline to threatened species such as the red squirrel, water vole and early gentian.

FURTHER READING:
.     Promising the Earth
Published as part of the 25th anniversary of Friends of the Earth, this presents a vivid account of the experiences, achievements and expectations of Britain's first environmental pressure group. It tells the inside story of pioneering campaigns from the first anti-whaling and fur trade campaigns of the early 1970s to the anti-road protests at Twyford Down and Newbury.
September 1996, L388 £9.99 book ISBN 0 415144442

.     Tomorrow's world: Britain's share in a sustainable future
Tomorrow's world offers a wide-ranging analysis of what the UK needs to do to achieve an environmentally sustainable society. It argues that Britain must cut resource consumption to allow developing countries to escape from poverty and to prevent further breaches of environmental limits. It sets targets for reduced consumption and shows how they can be met while at the same time improving our quality of life.
November 1997, T419 240 x 170 mm 256 pp, £ 12.95, ISBN 1 85383 511 0
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/sustainable_development/publications/tworld/briefs.html

For a list of FOE publications look at: http://www.foe.co.uk/pubsinfo/pubscat/
                                        
                                         Last modified: Dec 19, 2000