Asia Pacific


Continuing the feminist struggle in the face of attacks on democracy

Dismantling and resisting patriarchy is essential to Food Sovereignty, forest management and democracy and in the struggle against oppressive economic systems and political institutions. Below are interviews with three people leading the charge toward a more just, equitable, and feminist world that centers gender justice.  How do patriarchy and other oppressions stand in the struggle for democracy and forests and…

International Conference on Just and Feminist Energy Transition

Energy transition is one of the key ways to tackle climate change. The current energy system, based on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, is a major emitter of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. These gases are responsible for global warming. But the problems of the current energy system lie not only in the type of energy and…

Spotlight Philippines: A Year into the Marcos 2.0 Regime

June 30th marks the full circle of the first year under Philippine president Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr., son of previously deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The Philippines is both a globally critical hotspot of biodiversity and natural resources, and a historic beacon of democracy and people power in Asia. But the environmental and human rights situation has deteriorated over the…

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…

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…

Perspectives from Asia Pacific on the outcome of the COP27 climate talks

The annual UN climate talks took place in the Egyptian coastal town of Sharm el-Sheikh this year, from 6 to 20 November. This was the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, better known as “COP27”. In a press release issued at the end of the talks, Friends of the Earth International celebrated…

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.…

Communities in Asia united in the fight against coal

For many years, communities and civil society organisations in Japan have been repeatedly calling on their government to suspend support for new coal-fired power projects in Indonesia and Bangladesh, notably the Indramayu and Matarbari power plant projects. Not only would these projects fuel the climate crisis, they would also damage the livelihoods of local people and worsen the oversupply of…

Reviving indigenous agroecology in the Philippines: “Sulagad”

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for many in the Philippines. 25-30% of working people are involved in cultivation, animal rearing or fish farming, and the sector contributes around one tenth of the country’s economy. The industrial food system, with its focus on monocropping and chemical inputs to maximise harvests for export, is devastating the environment and livelihoods of…

The road to agroecology in Sri Lanka

Before the Green Revolution came to Sri Lanka in the 1960s, with the imposition of modernised machinery, high yielding varieties, increased use of fertilisers and other agrochemical inputs, the country had an ecologically sustainable agricultural system. Farmers used mixed farming techniques and cultivated in a manner that protected the natural environment and human health. They maintained soil fertility through the…