Anti-neoliberalism


Breaking the plastic cycle in Asia

Asia is drowning in plastic, with national production and imports from the global north having devastating environmental and public health impacts. According to a report by Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific, most South and East Asian countries lack proper waste management strategies, regulations and facilities to deal with the plastic waste crisis. Often, communities are forced to resort to…

Let’s talk about human rights and corporate impunity

Over 20 social organisations and networks from Latin America and the Caribbean are convening an open dialogue with government representatives and civil society to develop an international and mandatory tool to protect human rights against corporate abuse. Real World Radio interviewed Iván González, Political Coordinator at the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), member of the movement Continental Day…

Climate litigation cases in Asia Pacific: a step closer to climate justice

Climate litigation is an increasingly common area of environmental law that people are using to hold countries and public corporations to account for contributing to the climate crisis. In 2021, Friends of the Earth Netherlands, known locally as Milieudefensie, won a landmark victory for climate justice in the People VS Shell climate case. Now, Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific…

Waters of March: Action for Rivers in the Philippines

The Philippines has 421 principal rivers spread across 119 proclaimed watersheds. Aside from providing water to drink for 110 million Filipinos, these are also the source of irrigation for almost a million hectares of agricultural lands across the nation, and a significant source of electricity, comprising 10% of the current power mix. But the Philippine government’s emphasis on big dam…

Protecting life in all its different forms

In a context where scientists state that the natural world is in a dire situation and that “human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before,” the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is taking place in Montreal, Canada, from 7-19 December. There, governments will seek to agree…

“The devil will actually be in the details”: UN climate change negotiations kick off

30 years after the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 27th Conference of the Parties to this Convention opened on Sunday, to negotiate potential solutions to the climate crisis. Better known as the COP27, this year’s event is held in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh. Friends of the Earth International, the world’s largest grassroots…

Why a legally binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights is so important

The eighth round of United Nations negotiations for a Binding Treaty to regulate the human rights violations committed by transnational corporations begins this Monday 24 October 2022, in Geneva, Switzerland. These international talks began in Geneva in 2015 at the UN Human Rights Council. This year, they present new challenges for social movements and organisations that have been pushing for…

Monoculture plantations destroying forests and communities across East Asia

Agrcommodities have been ravaging forests across Malaysia and East Asia for decades. Since the 1990s, monoculture plantations have replaced logging, yet they are no less destructive on the environment or communities. “You can see the movement of the transnational logging industry first in the Philippines, then after the forest is gone, Thailand and then Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.…

Industrial monocultures in Honduras: conflict, landgrabbing and persecution of peasants and indigenous people

On the International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations, activist Sandra Escobar tells us a story of pain and joy, as peoples in Honduras struggle against the expansion of oil palm plantations and build alternatives together. Approximately 198,000 hectares of Honduras are planted with oil palm crops, representing almost 2% of the country’s land. Annually, it produces 2.4 million…

Linking alternatives: building peasant agroecology in Togo

Togo is one of the smallest countries in Africa and home to 8.6 million people. Since the shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic, increasingly extreme weather and recent food price rises, the state of food security in Togo has greatly deteriorated. In 2022, 1 in 5 people in the country don’t have access to or can’t afford enough healthy, nutritious food. Yet…