Forests
Protect forests, reject landgrabs
We are working to address the root causes of forest destruction and the marginalization of forest-dwelling communities. We do this through our campaign on landgrabs, forests & finance, and our work to challenge forest carbon offsets.
Friends of the Earth’s work on biofuels is closely tied in to these campaigns, but is housed under our Climate & Energy project.
Oceans
The world’s oceans support countless forms of life. Unfortunately, oceans and the tens of millions of people who live near them are under threat from oil spills, air pollution, sewage releases, industrial ocean fish farming, and unnatural ocean noise.
Friends of the Earth has won regional, national and international limits on air, water and oil pollution from cruise ships, cargo ships, oil tankers, ferries and recreational water craft. We were instrumental in achieving the establishment of air pollution limits for ships near the coasts of the U.S. and Canada, which prohibit the use of dirty bunker fuel — unless alternative compliance methods are employed, such as shorepower or other pollution reduction technologies.
Cruise ships
We are advocating for laws and regulations to stop cruise ships from dumping waste into our oceans, polluting our beaches, contaminating our coral reefs, and destroying our valuable marine ecology.
Oceangoing vessels
Friends of the Earth has been working for the past 18 years to protect coastal communities and marine life from harmful vessel air pollution, greenhouse gases, and the sewage, oil, and other water pollutants discharged from cruise ships, cargo ships, oil tankers, and ferries. As vessel traffic increases and shipping trade between Asian and U.S. ports continues to expand, vessels are generating a growing volume of air and water pollution, and are causing greater ecosystem harms.
Despite dumping massive amounts of pollution into our air and water, the commercial shipping industry has long avoided meaningful pollution controls. Shipping regulation suffers due to often weak enforcement by flag States, overlapping jurisdictional issues, and pollution discharges that are moving and often unseen.
National marine sanctuaries
We are working to protect valuable marine sanctuaries from environmental harms including damaging water and air pollution from ocean going vessels.
Industrial Ocean Fish Farming
We have recently launched a hard-hitting, strategic campaign to highlight the threats of industrial ocean fish farming and expand support for truly sustainable wild fisheries and alternative, agroecological methods of raising seafood, such as land-based recirculating aquaculture systems.