Press Releases

Global Forest Coalition is appalled at the lack of political will displayed at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP-9) and the direction the CBD is headed. Although countries in the Africa Group were unified in protecting biodiversity, other countries such as Brazil, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Japan blocked most progressive attempts to contain the alarming influence of industry now found in the CBD. Very disappointedly the CBD now makes it easier for genetically engineered trees to be commercialized, which sets back the gains achieved at the last CBD (COP-8) in Curitiba, Brazil in 2006.

Greenpeace today challenged Filipino lawmakers to stop procrastinating and to move swiftly to pass the Renewable Energy Bill to ensure the country's energy security and to help mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. At a special media briefing ahead of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior's visit to Manila as part of its 'Quit Coal Tour of Asia and the Pacific", Greenpeace also hailed commitments from several legislators, like Sen. Miguel Zubiri and Sen. Pia Cayetano to sponsor anti-coal resolutions in the Senate which also call for the phase-out of coal fired power plants and a significant uptake of clean, renewable energy power instead.

The Indigenous Environmental Network and members of its Native grassroots
delegation attending the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York
City held a protest/rally on the morning of Friday, April 25th, in front of the
offices of Sithe Global Power, LLC to protest the company's plans to build a
coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Reservation.

Mountain Justice Summer Camp
May 17 - 23
Harlan County, Kentucky
Our 2008 Mountain Justice Summer camp will be at the base of beautiful
Pine Mountain, with an old-growth forest and incredible hiking just
above the camp - plus live mountain music, great food, films, workshops
on coal mining and Appalachian culture, skills training, and plenty of
time for fun and relaxing.
Best of all, the camp is extremely low-cost, only $20 plus $10 per
night. There are
cabins with bunk beds, plus tent spaces, a beautiful

Asunción, Paraguay--One week before the third meeting of the Roundtable on
Responsible Soy (RTRS) in Buenos Aires, Argentina [1], the Global Forest
Coalition, a worldwide coalition of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and
Indigenous Peoples Organizations [2], have published an open call to NGOs to
withdraw themselves from the RTRS process [3]. The Coalition states that by
supporting the roundtable, NGOs are legitimizing the expansion of large-scale
soy monocultures that lead to massive deforestation, pesticide contamination,

We know that every day is Earth Day for you amazing youth climate activists, but
some of our wonderful Energy Action Coalition partners have some extra special tools
to help you celebrate.
National Wildlife Federation's Campus Chill Out
Tonight, April 16th at 7 pm EST you're invited to host a live broadcast featuring
positive, practical solutions to global warming being implemented by higher
education campuses around the country.
* Meet award-winning students and staff who are creating solutions
* Be a part of the conversation with the experts

Earth Day is fast approaching, and we wanted to share
with you a couple of important events planned for the 22nd.

The Earth Day Network is organizing a "Call for Climate"
campaign on April 22nd. They are aiming to generate hundreds of thousands of
calls to the Capitol that day.

Groups Condemn Biofuels as
"False Solution" During Brazil's President Lula Tour
of the Netherlands and Czech Republic

(Joint Release from Global Forest Coalition and Corporate Europe Observatory)

The Netherlands--Criticism is mounting denouncing Brazilian President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva's visit this week to the Netherlands and the Czech
Republic on a tour focused on promoting ethanol and other biofuels. The

First of all, a massive congratulations to everyone who took part in
fossil foolery of all kinds. We should all be really proud of the amazing
actions we took.

But let’s not stop now. Let’s build on the contacts we’ve made with these
actions, strengthen our connections across the world and get involved
wherever we live. On the cusp of runaway climate change, every day needs
to be a day of action, and there are a thousand ways to subvert the fossil
fuel economy wherever you are.

And coming up: