What we do

Human activity has so depleted biodiversity that around 1 million wild animal and plant species now face extinction, many within decades.  We work with local communities and Indigenous Peoples to conserve forests and strengthen communities’ rights and community management of forests. 

Globally, our agricultural systems are in crisis. However, we believe it is possible to feed the world, move away from the hunger, climate and biodiversity crises and build societies based on justice and solidarity using agroecological practices for food sovereignty.

Climate change and the global energy crisis threaten the lives and livelihoods of billions of people worldwide. Friends of the Earth is part of a growing, diverse and effective global movement to resist dirty energy, champion alternative energy sources, and call for climate justice. 

The School of Sustainability is a Friends of the Earth program that recognises the energy, capability and power of young people. It is a space for strengthening alliances, allowing its next generation of leaders to come together and renew their commitment to and even reimagine their vision of a just world.    

We see grassroots, anti-capitalist feminism as a key theoretical concept and political tool in the fight for women’s autonomy, equality between women and men, between peoples, and between people and nature. We aim to show, in practice, that this feminism can and is being constructed from the grassroots up, it is relevant to all women and men, and it is representative of regional diversity and different realities.

Working with social movements, including feminists, indigenous people and peasant movements, we advocate economic justice solutions like cooperatives and public services that reduce inequality, contribute to equitable power relations including between women and men and expand the role of cooperation, community management and sustainable planning in all aspects of life.

Environmental Human Rights Defenders are at risk because they are fighting against a system that exploits people and nature, concentrates wealth and power in the hands of a few, and has brought the planet to the brink of collapse. They have fought for collective human rights, and thus their own human rights are at risk or have been violated. We must support as well as protect them in their advocacies.