Good news and highlights from 2004

Friends of the Earth (FoE) is mindful of the fact that hardly any environmental victories are the result of the actions of a single organisation; it is alliances and collaborations between different sectors and groups that brings about both short-term victories and long-term change. With this in mind, the following are some of the victories we have helped achieve and good news from our campaigns in 2004. There is a vast amount of productive and effective local and international work that we have carried out over the last year; this is just some of the national activity:

January

Regional solidarity
On January 7, 2004 a protest by community members in North Maluku, Indonesia at the Newcrest Toguraci gold mine site ended as paramilitary police, acting as security for the Melbourne based company, shot and killed one person and arrested hundreds.

FoE Melbourne responded immediately, holding a vigil outside the building to highlight these human rights abuses.

First independent forestry certification in Australia
In January 2004, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) granted Hancock Victorian Plantations FSC certification for their 250,000 hectare plantation/native forest lands throughout Victoria. The certification is the world's most reputable forest certification standard and took three years to work through. FoE Australia is a member of the FSC and have supported FSC since its inception over 10 years ago, as a way of ensuring logging companies move out of old growth forests. Hancock became the first company to gain this certification in Australia.

FoE and Friends of Gippsland Bush have been monitoring plantations since 1996 and their constant work in Hancock plantations lead to the certification assessors adopting a list of 30 conditions and pre-conditions that Hancock must meet in order to keep the FSC certificate.

February

Parliamentary inquiry into radioactive waste
Continued concern over the transport of nuclear waste led to a parliamentary inquiry in New South Wales in February 2004. The Inquiry found that the proposed dumping and transport of nuclear waste could not be justified and should be abandoned. The NSW Parliament recently accepted 18 of the 22 recommendations of the inquiry and have called for the licensing process for the proposed nuclear reactor in Sydney to be suspended until the Federal government provides an acceptable plan for nuclear waste management.

March

Communities united over waste transport
FoE facilitated a very successful tour of the proposed transport route for nuclear waste in NSW and South Australia by a delegation of farmers from the Gorleben region in Germany. The tour created the opportunity to share the experiences and lessons of their campaign to stop the transport of high-level nuclear waste in Germany.

April

Regional mining meeting
We hosted a regional Asia - Pacific - Oceania (APO) mining meeting in Melbourne, with visitors from around the region. This has lead to far better ongoing campaign links, and we held a vigil over the Newcrest mine in Indonesia, a public meeting, and internal strategy meetings as well as generating considerable media, especially on the poor behaviour of some Australian mining companies operating in the APO region.

April / May

Climate justice tour
This was a major project of the FoE Australia climate justice campaign. Siuila Toloa (Tuvalu), Fiu Mataese Elisara (Samoa) and Nnimmo Bassey (Nigeria) travelled through Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane and were joined by Don Kennedy in Melbourne who spoke as the Tuvaluan representative on plans to buy an island from Fiji to allow the resettlement of people displaced by global warming.
The inspiration for the climate justice tour came from FoEA's desire to shift the climate change debate in Australia beyond science and economics alone. We wanted to highlight the inequities of climate change impacts in a way that gives voice to those most affected by climate change. What developed was a unique opportunity to hear from community leaders and activists from affected communities – to gain knowledge and personal insight from those in a position to know.

FoE thanks our project partners, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad and Aid/Watch.

The tour was inspirational and empowering and has forged new links with communities in Nigeria and the Pacific.

July

30 years and going strong
FoE Australia celebrated it's 30th year with the publication of a history ('30 years of creative resistance') and a huge celebration in Melbourne. We are heartened by one of the stories that emerged: of the first national meeting, held in 1974, which was held on the proposed site of a long-defeated nuclear reactor.

Victory on nuclear waste dump!
The federal government's decision to abandon its plans for a national nuclear waste dump was a welcome victory for the South Australian community, and communities in NSW who are on the waste route between the Lucas Heights reactor and northern SA, and was an acknowledgement of the depth of community concern that exists on this issue.
In particular, this is a great outcome for the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, the senior Aboriginal women's council from northern SA.

FoE has been working on this campaign since 1999, when we launched the nuclear freeways project and we have played a significant role in this campaign. The next phase in the struggle will be to watch-dog federal government plans for other possible sites for the dump.

Radioactive racism tour
This semi annual event allows students and other interested people to see, first hand, the impacts of the nuclear industry on the environment and Indigenous communities in South Australia. For many it is literally a life changing experience.

November

Food irradiation tour
We helped co-ordinate this national tour which highlighted the health risks associated with irradiation of food.

Melbourne social forum
As part of its commitment to working with social movements, FoE helped organise the first Melbourne social forum, modelled on the World Social Forums held in January each year.

Summing up 2004...

2004 was an inspirational year, despite the outcome of the federal election in October. In particular, the announcement on the nuclear waste dump is heartening proof of the value of grassroots, locally based environmental justice campaigning.

2005 looks set to be just as busy. We hope you can join or support our work in the coming year.