In Ukraine, Zelenyi Svit / Friends of the Earth Ukraine campaigners, alongside other environmental organisations, are keeping up their efforts to create a protected area in Samara forest in the Dnipropetrovsk region of the country, which is under threat from human activity.
Samara is the largest and southernmost natural forest in the steppe zone of Ukraine, encompassing an area of about 15,000 hectares, and extending for 30 km along a narrow strip down the river that shares its name.
Czech courts have ruled that protesters, including many members of Hnutí Duha/Friends of the Earth Czech Republic, who blocked loggers in Šumava national park in 2011, acted peacefully, legitimately and in complete accordance with the law. Police intervention, however, and the tree-felling itself, have both been deemed illegal.
Intensive meat and dairy production is having an increasingly devastating impact on society and the environment, according to a new 'Meat Atlas' published today by Friends of the Earth Europe and the Heinrich Boell Foundation.
Friends of the Earth groups from across Europe expressed solidarity with Friends of the Earth Czech Republic (Hnutí DUHA) last week, in their struggle to save the Šumava national park, in the Czech Republic, from unsustainable development and logging. In a press conference on the Czech-German border, delegates from Friends of the Earth Europe called on local communities to support Friends of the Earth Czech Republic, and for the new government to consolidate wilderness zones and preserve the national park's status and integrity.
Three years on from international agreements to halt biodiversity loss, European biodiversity remains under threat, warns Friends of the Earth Europe. Negotiators will meet in Montreal, Canada, this week, to assess progress towards halting global biodiversity loss, and towards achieving international biodiversity targets.
A comprehensive study, drawing on published reports and national ministries from 18 European countries, released today by Friends of the Earth Europe and CEEweb, shows that urgent action is needed if Europe is to meet its target to halt biodiversity loss by 2020.
Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland today welcomed the decision by the UK Government to urgently review the decline of bees.
UK Environment Under Secretary Lord de Mauley made the announcement at a special Bee Summit organised by Friends of the Earth on Friday 28th June in London. He said that "We must develop a better understanding of the factors that can harm these insects and the changes that government, other organisations and individuals can make to help."
Friends of the Earth Europe, alongside FERN and Birdlife Europe and 30 other NGOs, criticised an industry-dominated international agreement on forests today. The Forest Convention to be signed by European countries this fall will be detrimental to the health, carbon carrying capacity and biodiversity levels of European and international forests according to the organisations.
Friends of the Earth Croatia celebrated today with the news that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have cancelled a €123.2 million loan to Croatian electricity company HEP for the construction of the controversial Ombla hydroelectric plant, near Dubrovnik.
The power-plant, heavily reliant on the EBRD loan, would be constructed at the source of city's river Ombla – a potential Natura 2000 area with rich biodiversity, and the source of drinking water for Dubrovnik city.
Bulgarian environmentalists have hailed the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court in declaring illegal a ski-lift in the World Heritage listed Pirin National Park.
Over 50 groups, including Friends of the Earth Denmark, warned the Greenlandic and Danish governments today that they risk jeopardising the vulnerable arctic environment with their plans to allow uranium mining in the region [1].