Extractive Industries

We send an energetic, supportive and full of hope embrace to the families of those whose life was taken by this corporate crime. Latin American rivers are the veins through which the hope and progress of the people circulate, so we salute with special affection the fishing communities, farmers, peasants and all the inhabitants of the Paraopeba river basin, for…

Once again history repeats itself as a tragedy. On one side, Vale SA, a major worldwide mining company, and on the other, the Brazilian people gathering bodies sunken in the mud of criminal enterprises. This January 25 will be marked by the breaking of three iron-ore tailings dams at the Córrego do Feijão Mine, part of the Paraopeba Complex. The dam of responsibility of the company Vale is…

In a victory for the movement for a fossil free Europe, a climate-damaging gas pipeline project between France and Catalonia has today been blocked by French energy regulators. Permission and funding for the central portion of the controversial ‘MidCat’ mega-project – the STEP (South Transit Eastern Pyrenees) – was refused by France’s Energy Regulatory Commission, on grounds of lack of necessity and high…

Dear President Cyril Ramaphosa This is the last action I am undertaking before groundWork closes for 2018. groundWork believes a Just Transition is urgently needed and that you need to be at the forefront of this as leader of the country to prevent a transition that will cripple South Africa and destroy the promise of democracy. The recent Intergovernmental Panel…

We have just heard that Mozambican journalist Estacio Valoi and 2 foreign journalists have been detained in Palma, Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique. This happened on the morning on 17 December 2018, by the Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique (Defense Forces of Mozambique). The journalists had permission from the local and provincial authorities to do their reporting work, yet they were stopped. Their…

Monday marks the first anniversary of the massacre of eight indigenous people in Datal Bonglangon village, South Cotabato province, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The inhabitants of the small community paid with their lives the demands for their ancestral lands and the resistance to the coffee and mining industry for export. Their blood taints the company and Rodrigo…

An ancient forest in the West of Germany was on the verge of destruction to expand a coal mine - until the hard work of activists from local communities and further afield paid off.

“Mobilizing and using people power is actually crucial to face the climate emergency”, said Friends of the Earth International´s Climate Justice and Energy Program Coordinator, Sara Shaw. A radical systemic change is needed, she warned. From this Saturday to October 13th, the member groups of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), present in 75 countries, will mobilize together to highlight…

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. However, “we cannot be celebrating”. The planet is facing serious environmental degradation, and the necessary measures to counteract it are not being taken, warned activist Rita Uwaka with Environmental Rights Action - Friends of the Earth Nigeria. The environmentalist, who is part of the steering group…

Ecuador´s Constitutional Court has rejected the protection appeal filed by Chevron in 2014. Since 2014, the Union of People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT) expected a resolution by the Constitutional Court of Ecuador about the protection appeal filed by Chevron Corporation to avoid paying 9.5 billion dollars as part of a historical sentence received in 2011 for the damage caused to…