Archived press release

It's No Secrett Any More: Director's Last Day at Friends of the Earth

28 March 2003

Today is the last day in post at Friends of the Earth for retiring Executive Director Charles Secrett.

Charles was Director of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland for ten years from 1993 to 2003. Previously he had begun and led Foe's pioneering tropical forests, wildlife and agriculture campaigns. He is a member of the UK Government's Commission on Sustainable Development, of the Advisory Council of the Environment Law Foundation and of the Advisory Board of the Ecologist magazine.

Highlights of his time as Director include:

• Helping to strengthen Friends of the Earth's growing international network, which now covers 68 countries and is the largest grassroots environment network in the world.

• Increasing membership from 91,000 to 100,000, and increasing income from ?5 million to ?9 million a year. This has meant increased staff and budgets for Foe's powerful campaigning network of over 200 local groups and for regional offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Brighton, Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge, Birmingham, Nottingham and Liverpool and a special environmental project office in Teesside.

• Developing a new professional campaigning approach for FOE nationally, setting up a Legal Unit, Media Unit, Parliamentary Campaign Unit, a Local Campaigns Department and a Sustainable Development Research Unit.

• Ensuring that FOE played a leading role in the fight against genetically modified crops in the UK and internationally

• Convincing the Treasury to begin a major programme of environment tax reform (covering climate emissions, aggregates, energy and fuels)

• Playing a leading role in the successful fight against the NIREX plans for an underground nuclear waste dump at Sellafield

• Developing campaigns against the Ilisu Dam in Turkey, against dozens of new roads and incinerators around Britain, to protect Sites of Special Scientific Interest and other key wildlife and countryside areas, to stop companies like Scotts from peat digging, and to draw public attention to continuing pollution from factories around the country and their siting in poorer and more vulnerable communities (Factorywatch)

• Developing a campaigning approach that links environmental issues with economic and social justice issues, and which mobilizes individual citizens, as voters, consumers, shareholders, employees and local activists.

• Passing over a dozen FOE-sponsored Parliamentary Bills into law including the Road Traffic Reduction Acts of 1997 and 1998, the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, and the Recycling Bill now going through its Parliamentary passage. FOE was also a major influence on the wildlife conservation parts of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.

Charles now intends to work on establishing a new type of citizens' action campaign group, to mobilize constituency and taxpayer campaigns for environmental rights and sustainable development priorities. The group's working name is ACT - Active Citizens Transform.

Charles comments:

"Leading Friends of the Earth has been the experience and the challenge of a lifetime. It is a rare privilege to be involved with thousands of determined, effective and professional colleagues and campaigners. Their work means that I leave Friends of the Earth in the strongest state it has ever known. And I am confident that under my successor Tony Juniper it will go from strength to strength. This is a unique and precious organization which I leave with sadness but also pride. I wish Tony and Friends of the Earth the very best for the future."

Incoming Director Tony Juniper added:*

"The growing strength and success of Friends of the Earth over the last decade owe much to the work of the Charles Secrett. He has led the creation of a unique organization that combines grassroots citizen action with effective and professional campaigning at a local, national and international level. Charles has played a key role in moving environmental issues to where they belong - right at the heart of political debate. We will miss his intelligence, energy and conviction here - but I know he will continue to support our work and will continue to put his talents to use in developing the environmental movement in this country and across the world."

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust