Celebrating ‘Friends of the Earth’ S25 Ep20

Friends of the Earth (FoE) is the largest grassroots federation of environmental activists in the world and currently active in more than 70 countries, with over 2 million supporters and members world wide. FoE began 56 years ago in the USA (San Francisco in 1969), and 53 years ago FoE set up its first Australian office in Adelaide (1972), and a year later (1973) the Melbourne office was set up. The national Australian office was established in 1974. Since 1973, Friends of the Earth Australia (FoE) has defended and protected forests and waterways, stood as allies in the struggles for First Nations’ self determination and land rights, opposed uranium mining, protested the destruction of war, and kept fossil fuels in the ground. FoE takes a community empowerment approach to its campaigns. FoE has built thriving social enterprises that challenge the status quo, promotes sustainable consumption, puts workers first and helps fund environmental and social action. FoE doesn’t have a CEO or bosses, they strive for anti-hierarchy and practice consensus decision-making. Each group has the autonomy to do whatever they need to protect the natural environment as long as they act in accordance with these principles.

In this week’s EarthChat Ruth Yeatman celebrates ‘Friends of the Earth’ (FoE) with long time member and campaigns’ coordinator, Cam Walker, who has tirelessly worked with the organization since 1989. Cam Walker is responsible for co-ordinating FoE's various campaigns and projects. He has worked for decades on grassroots environmental campaigns, starting with the Franklin River in 1982, and with indigenous communities and organisations. Over the past 8 years Cam’s key priority has been to gain a permanent ban on the process of fracking in Victoria, a rebuild of the Climate Change Act, adoption of strong emission reduction targets, and a strong renewable energy target (VRET) in the state of Victoria. These successful campaigns were effective because they built strong alliances with rural and regional communities. In the last three years Cam has focused on identifying forests of high conservation value in the Victorian high country and campaigning for their protection, and working towards an early end to native forest logging across the state. A long community campaign led to the Victorian government announcing it will end all native forest logging in the east of the state by January 2024. Cam spent a decade working with FoE International, with experience in environmental campaigning in Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America.Cam is clearly is one of Australia’s treasures (and the world’s). Deep gratitude for his sustained commitment, courage, and incredibly hard work supporting our Environment for near half a century! Listen in! You can follow Cam’s Twitter feed at @Cam_Walker. For more information about Friends of the Earth Melbourne : melbournefoe.org.au