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 2005.

There is a vast amount of productive and effective local and international work that our network has carried out over the last year; this is just some of the national activity:

The Tsunami appeal – action as an antidote to despair

The world was shocked by the human and environmental impacts of the tsunami that followed the Boxing Day earthquake.

The local branch of WALHI/ Friends of the Earth Indonesia in Aceh was devastated, with the loss of its director Mohammad Ibrahim and 30 people from the organisation.

WALHI (The Indonesian Forum for Environment) is the FoE group in Indonesia. It is the largest forum of environmental and social non-governmental organisations, community organisations, and student environment groups in Indonesia, is active in 25 provinces and has over 430 member organisations.

The WALHI national office immediately stepped into action, providing emergency relief in Aceh and North Sumatra.

FoE Australia and Friends of the Earth groups in other parts of the world began raising funds to support this work. Locally we raised more than $20,000 to support WALHI's emergency relief efforts.

In March, WALHI  announced that its fundraising campaign was on hold as the group prepared to conclude the emergency relief period. “We thank all the individuals and organisations that have contributed their money, time, and skills for the WALHI tsunami recovery effort. We cherish your solidarity which will continue to inspire our commitment in the affected areas.
After deploying over 130 volunteers (medics, nutritionists, sanitation experts, community organisers, etc) our volunteer center in Jakarta has ended its recruitment and deployment of external volunteers. We are now preparing to focus all of our resources on the next step of the WALHI Tsunami Recovery project which entails working with local communities and organisations through the means of community organising and advocacy support to ensure their participation in reconstruction efforts.”

FoEA Australia would like join with WALHI to offer our thanks to all the people who supported these efforts.

For an update on the current situation and transition from relief to reconstruction work, please see:  http://www.eng.walhi.or.id/tsunami/

(In December 2005, FoE Australia re-launched its fundraising appeal in order to support WALHI's reconstruction efforts. See: http://www.foe.org.au/ci/ci_TsunamiAppeal.htm for details).

Climate justice, climate refugees

Climate change is still seen by many as largely an environmental issue. However, it is likely to be one of the most significant environmental justice issues ever encountered by humanity. While developed countries are historically responsible for human-induced climate change, the poor in developing countries are the most vulnerable to its effects.

In seeking climate justice FoE has consistently strived to add a human rights perspective to the debate and to highlight climate changes impacts on health, food, water, local economies and the sovereignty of people across the world. FoEA believes that as a major contributor of greenhouse gases, and a Kyoto skeptic, the Australian government must be pressured to take action to mitigate or reduce climate change, dramatically increase our foreign aid and to accept refugees on environmental grounds.

As part of FoE’s community outreach program, climate forums were held in a range of locations during the 2004/2005 period. Community groups in areas as diverse as Adelaide and rural Victoria to Lismore in Northern NSW heard about and discussed possible responses to this key issue. Our local partners in this initiative included: the Community Trading Network, Oxfam/Community Aid Abroad, Rainforest Information Centre  and the Sustainable Ventures Network.

In mid 2005 we launched our Citizen's guide to climate refugees. This outlines the likely human displacement that will be caused by global warming and what we, as individuals, organisations and nations can do about it. The guide was endorsed by a wide range of organisations, including Catholic Earthcare, Climate Action Network Australia, Greenpeace Australia Pacific and Oxfam Australia.

The guide is available at: http://www.foe.org.au/climate

Hot politics – Testing times

Nuclear power has rocketed back into the public realm, with a concerted industry and federal government attempt to paint it as greenhouse friendly and the ‘solution’ to climate change. This push has also increased pressure for an expansion of the Australian uranium mining industry. With over 30 years of experience in researching and monitoring nuclear activities in Australia and around the world, FoE has been actively engaged in this national debate. FoE has carried out research, held forums and generated significant media. In early 2005 FoE produced Hot Politics – Testing Times, a booklet detailing Australia’s nuclear industry. FoE believes that nuclear power is clearly not an option for meeting growing energy demand or combating greenhouse gas emission and that it is not the solution to addressing greenhouse gas emissions.

A combination of energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy sources is the cleanest, safest and most cost effective way to meet our current and future energy needs whilst reducing greenhouse pollution.

Nuclear power is unsafe, unclean and unnecessary. Nuclear power generation is a high cost and high risk energy option and is a dangerous distraction that would delay the changes needed to make the production of energy greenhouse friendly. FoE will continue to actively engage in the nuclear power issue and work to end Australia’s involvement in uranium mining and export.

In September, FoEA produced the report Nuclear power – no solution to climate change. This report was endorsed by a range of environmental and public health organisations.

Further details:  http://www.foe.org.au/nuclear

Barmah – Millewa: the world's largest Redgum ecosystem

FoE has continued to collaborate with the Yorta Yorta Nation and a range of community and environmental groups to ensure protection of the Barmah and Millewa forests on the Murray River. Timber harvesting has been contributing to a slow death of Barmah for many years, but the recent advent of mechanical harvesting is accelerating this demise with a new scientific report detailing increased weed invasion and the localised extinction of endemic species.

At least five regionally significant herbaceous species are threatened with local extinction. Even worse, mechanical harvesting technique was used in 2005 to illegally log a Superb Parrot Special Protection Zone at Grinters Ridge within the Victorian section of the forest. FoE highlighted this, resulting in a State government investigation.

Sustainable timber production

In 2005 FoE updated its ‘Good Wood Guide’ to sustainable sources of timber and made some of the guide available via the internet.

If you burn firewood in Melbourne, chances are you’re burning dwindling habitat from Victoria’s extraordinary Red Gum Forests like Barmah-Millewa. FoE is working to ensure that people who use wood heating avoid using firewood such as Box-Ironbark, Redgum or Mallee which comes from native forests. 80% of firewood sold in Victoria is Red Gum – little or none of which is currently sustainably harvested.

FoE carried out detailed research into sustainable alternatives and suppliers of firewood. The public response was highly positive and available sources of wood from woodlot sources were quickly exhausted. A key lesson from this work has been people’s willingness to modify consumption patterns and behaviors when a clear case is made and alternative options presented.

Radioactive Exposure tour 

Pioneered by Ila Marks and Eric Miller FoE’s radioactive exposure tours have been providing  opportunities for people to learn about the impacts of uranium mining first-hand for almost two decades. Tours travel to South Australia to visit existing uranium mines and talk with locals and indigenous communities about their experiences with the nuclear industry.  Tour participants get to experience  some of the most beautiful and ecologically significant environments in Australia.

The 2005 tour was held in April, taking a large group of people through this special and endangered country and consolidating strong connections with our partner groups and communities.

Indigenous womens speaking tour

In April 2005, FoE helped host the Burning the Sacred fire tour to Victoria, featuring a number of inspirational Indigenous women speaking on culture, land, people and ongoing Indigenous struggles.

Speakers included Annette Xiberras (Wurundjeri), Isabell Coe (Wiradjuri), Wudjularbinna Nulyarimma (Gungilida), Bowie Hickey (Gamilaroi), Veronica Brodie (Ngarrindjeri) and Sue Charles Rankin (Jaara). Along with a packed public meeting at RMIT there was also a highly successful weekend gathering in regional Victoria.

Revegetation work

A number of FoE local groups continue to be involved in both new revegetation/ restoration programs and the protection of pockets of remnant indigenous vegetation. For some groups, such as FoE Stawell based in the Victorian Box – Ironbark belt, such work is a major focus. In 2004/5, it was decided to bring the various aspects of our work together under a single umbrella to make it easier to offer opportunities for our members and supporters to get involved in these types of initiatives and to provide co-ordinated assistance to LandCare groups and other community-based restoration organisations.

A range of one-off and on-going  events were held during the year, from stabilising and replanting sub alpine wetlands on Mt Stirling in Victoria (April 2005), to working with land managers to remove environmental weeds such as Sweet Pittosporum, Bluebell Creeper, Boneseed and Agapanthus which  have 'jumped the garden fence’ from houses in the Kennet River township and invaded the Lorne-Angahook State Park in Victoria's Otway Ranges (June 2005).

Forests campaigning

Throughout December 2004 and January 2005, the FoE Forest Network researched the extent of plantations in the Otway Ranges in western Victoria.  The goal was to add the information to the FoE GIS System and produce a plantation catchment map for the Otway Ranges which is available to the public.  A version can be found at;
http://www.hancock.forests.org.au/directory/otways/map.htm

This research found that the Gellibrand River catchment, which supplies drinking water to around 50,000 people in the state's south west, was heavily impacted by several thousand hectares of tree plantations. Of special concern was the Lardners Creek catchment which supplies drinking water to the small town of Gellibrand. Plantations in the Lardners Creek catchment lie within a kilometre of the offtake to the towns water supply.  FoE research suggests that Gellibrand is possibly the most impacted community in the state in regards to tree plantations.

FoE then started assessing some of the plantations in the area through site visits. One Midways operation at Charleys Creek was reported to the Colac Otway Shire, who deemed that the operation had breached the Code of Forest Practice.  Another Midway operation on the Gellibrand River was found to have logged about 1km of plantation on a Crown Reserve.  A response to FoE from the Minister about this issue indicates that the area will be remediated with indigenous species once logging has been completed.

FoE continued to work with plantation industry groups to develop best practice management guidelines, covering all aspects of the timber production process.

FoE has continued to monitor logging operations in Victoria's Strezlecki Ranges which have been endorsed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Friends of the Earth has also completed a project mapping the known habitat range of the Strzelecki Koala.

The Strzelecki Koala is possibly the only relic population of Koala remaining in Victoria and South Australia. All other koala populations are the result of  state governments' translocation policy. This means that other koala populations are lacking in genetic diversity and some are suffering from inbreeding. The long term future of the species therefore lies in maintaining a healthy gene pool in the Strzeleckis. Despite the ecological importance of this region up to 800 hectares of koala habitat is being clearfelled each year in the Strzelecki Ranges by Hancock Victorian Plantations.

Biodiversity

From the southern forests to Northern Australia, FoE’s koala work continues with FoE Kuranda, a new member group, completing the identification of the extent of populations of Koalas in Northern QLD - the most northerly koala population in Australia.

FoE Kuranda is a community group in tropical Far North Queensland. It also campaigns against inappropriate and unsustainable planning in the region and works for the protection of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.  Major areas of current concern for the group include:

• The likely impacts of a proposed four-lane highway through World Heritage rainforests. The road would cost an estimated $0.5 billion dollars, be three times the width of the present scenic two- lane rainforest drive and take 10 years to construct.
• The likely impacts of proposed urbanisation of rural settlements, adjacent to World Heritage and woodlands that would be facilitated by the proposed four-lane highway.

A 4-lane highway and dense urbanisation in one of the most biodiverse places in the world and one of the most fragile corridors of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area makes no sense and FoE Kuranda is gearing up to protect this unique part of Australia.

Further information:  http://www.foekuranda.org/

New FoEA Nanotechnology Project up and running

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter at the atomic or molecular level. Companies as diverse as IBM, DuPont, Nestle and Monsanto as well as governments world-wide are investing billions of dollars in the attempt to reinvent the world from the atom up. The industry may be worth as much as US$1 trillion in the next ten years. World-wide, hundreds of nanotech products are already commercially available, including transparent sunscreens, industrial catalysts, self-cleaning windows, long-lasting paints, computer chips, tennis racquets and nutritionally 'enhanced’ foods. However the industry remains wholly unregulated, despite the significant threats it poses to human health and the environment.

FoE Australia is calling for a moratorium on the research, development and production of synthetic nanoproducts while regulations are developed to protect the health and safety of workers, the public and the environment from the harmful impacts of nanotechnology.

For more information visit
http://www.foe.org.au or email georgia.miller@foe.org.au

Local group activity

FoE is committed to the philosophy of “Think globally – Act locally” and much of the activity of FoE Australia occurs through the efforts of the local groups. This covers an enormous range of activity, styles and issues. Some examples of this work over the past year include:

• community education over the siting of proposed wind farms in Victoria and production and distribution of materials highlighting the benefits of a shift to renewable energy;
• an Organic Food Forum held on World Environment Day in Stawell in north west Victoria featuring speakers on all areas of organic food production from certification to value adding. More than ninety people attended with local producers networking and displaying produce including teas, olive oils, fertilisers, and seeds;
• outreach and shared work with faith communities from the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions. FoE also produced and distributed a booklet on faith and environment;
• FoE produced materials on the human and social impacts of global warming;
• FoE hosted the 9th Wildspaces environmental film festival. Screened in over 20 locations around Australia from Alice Springs to Denmark and Stawell to Atherton, Wildspaces is Australia’s leading dedicated showcase of environmental film.
• A forum with Thai trade activist, Jacques-Chai Chomthongdi from Focus on the Global South, that focused on the impacts of the Thai - Australia Free Trade Agreement, Thai civil society responses and the possibilities for international civil society collaboration was held in Melbourne. 
• A forum with Nicola Bullard, also from Focus on the Global South was held in Melbourne. Nicola spoke on trade and globalisation.

Summing up 2005...

2005 was an inspirational year, with some good outcomes and campaign victories.
2006 looks set to be a busy, especially with plans for the radioactive waste facility in the NT, and broader plans for the expansion of the nuclear industry. We hope you can join or support our work in the coming year.

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