Special Reports


Meeting for new UN framework to protect biodiversity to be held in Italy

Environmental federation Friends of the Earth International reaffirms its concern over the lack of ambition in the new framework currently under negotiation at the UN, which will set the basis for the protection of biodiversity globally from 2020 to 2030. A Friends of the Earth International delegation will participate in the second meeting of the Open Ended Working Group of…

A rebel, but conscious youth

Socialist community El Maiza, located between Lara and Portuguesa states, in Venezuela, is a reference for the community movement of the country. Founded 11 years ago, with diverse self-managed companies, El Maizal is proud to show visitors their productive diversity and their political-ideological framework, with self-government as their banner. One example is enough: the unit focused on cattle production started…

“They have turned our community into a cemetery”

At 12:28 on 25 January, 2019, Dam 1 of the Córrego do Feijão mine, containing 12,000,000 cubic meters of toxic mud, collapsed and spilled the mud over 9 kilometers to the city of Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) and then along the path of the Paraopeba River. The Brazilian Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) arrived to Brumadinho a few hours…

Healing through the struggle for Human Rights

Lead, mercury, cadmium and zinc are just some of the heavy metals found in the toxic mud left over from mining activities. Government officials in Minas Gerais, Brazil, identified levels of these metals up to 21 times above the acceptable metal in the mud that spread through Brumadinho and the Paraopeba River on 25 January, 2019. Geraldo Martins, a healthcare…

Australia: this is climate change

"Australia is experiencing an unprecedented fire crisis. 10 million hectares have been burned already. Nearly 2000 homes have been destroyed and many lives lost. The fires are so immense they have created their own weather systems, sparking more fires by generating their own dry electrical storms. Firefighters have never seen anything like it. Scientists are now saying many billions of…

International Human Rights Day: cases of serious violations across Asia

Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific launches on Tuesday 10 December, International Human Rights Day, a new report that warns: “everyday, somewhere on this planet, environmental human rights defenders are being threatened, defamed, assaulted or murdered for defending their territories.” The new publication, launched by press release today, is entitled “Defending the territories, defending our lives”. It includes seven stories…

Carbon Markets: a new form of climate colonialism

On December 5, international social movements and organizations fighting for climate justice demanded the elimination of carbon markets from the Paris Agreement, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) in Madrid. Friends of the Earth International, La Vía Campesina, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development launched a…

Historic national strike in Colombia: millions of people take to the streets

Thursday´s national strike in Colombia was one of the largest in the recent history of the country. Protests continued on Friday, in a spontaneous way. Millions of people took to the streets on Thursday in Colombia against the package of measures implemented by President Iván Duque. While demonstrations in Bogota, the capital city of the country, were massive, social organizations…

Healthy food for a healthy life

They met as part of a Women´s Meeting organized by the groups member of the Uruguayan Network of Native Seeds on November 9 in Rivera department, near the border with Brazil. Rural women from Rivera, Salto, Paysandú, Tacuarembó, Cerro Largo departments and even some from Canelones and Maldonado departments met to follow up on the issues discussed at the previous…

Latin-American social movements unite in Cuba: solidarity, organized resistance and strategies for peoples’ progress

“There is no one way of thinking, no one recipe for organizing, there are many ways, and this resistance built from the grassroots is a reflection of the moment we are experiencing”, said Martha Flores, Coordinator of Jubilee South Americas, in Havana, Cuba, on Saturday. She was interviewed by Real World Radio on the second day of the Anti-Imperialist Meeting…