Friends of the Earth (EWNI)


Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland is one of 75 national groups around the world which make up the Friends of the Earth network of environmental organisations. It is usually referred to as 'Friends of the Earth' within its home countries.

History

Friends of the Earth was founded in England in 1971, two years after the group was first founded in San Francisco in 1969. Its first leader was Graham Searle, a former vice president of the National Union of Students. One of the first campaigns was to dump almost 1000 glass bottles in front of the HQ of soft drinks giant Schweppes in Connaught House, London in protest at the company's policy of having non-returnable bottles. Other initial activities focused on opposing an open cast copper mine in the Snowdonia National Park and on work to save endangered species. This grew into the world-wide 'Save the Whale' campaigns by FoE, Greenpeace and others.
Campaigning for safe energy was also an early issue in whch FoE EWNI were supported by US expert Amory Lovins. Oppostion to nuclear power and support for renewable energy was a core campaign issue whch developed into work on climate change - now in 2020 the central theme for FoE EWNI work.
Local action across the UK is a distinguishing feature of FoE EWNI, which has a network of licenced 'local groups' that enjoy a degree of autonomy over the issues on which they work. Soon after the launch in 1971 there were eight local branches and by 1976 there were 140. In 1978 groups in Scotland split off to form their own organisation, FoE Scotland. In 1980 FoE had 250 groups and 17,000 registered supporters, but the growth of the peace movement and CND in 1980-84 saw support move away and FoE contracted to 12 staff. Between 1984 and 1990 its director was Jonathan Porritt a former teacher and chairman of the Ecology party for a UK Climate Act, which became law in 2008. From 2015-2020 Craig Bennett was Chief Executive, who left to become Director of the Wildlife Trusts. A new CEO is to be appointed.

Structure and funding

FoE EWNI has a dual structure, comprising a trust, which is a registered charity, and a limited company, which carries out political campaigning – UK legislation limits how far a charity may campaign. under UK rules.
Total income for Friends of the Earth Ltd. for the year ending May 2019 was £11.2M of which about £8M was a grant from the FoE Charitable Trust.