Success stories

Since 1984 Friends of the Earth Cymru has had many victories in protecting the environment of Wales.

Working with FOE local groups and communities across Wales some of our successes include:

1992 - first bilingual petition presented to Parliament signed by 19,000 people against opencast coal mining
1993 - revealed the threat of Interim Development Orders - ‘planning timebombs' in some of our most sensitive landscapes from old mineral permissions
1995 - working with Newport Friends of the Earth to stop the Usk barrage which would have directly threatened the ecology of the river Usk
1996 - published first environmental report into the environmental effects of the Sea Empress oil spill
1997 - Pembrokeshire Islands and Milford Haven Special Area of Conservation finally submitted to Europe following a Friends of the Earth Cymru complaint to the European Commission
2000 - massive theme park ‘Legend Court' near Newport stopped

1992 - revealing the scandal of "unknown" contaminated sites in Wales
1994 - planning permission for a huge landfill at Aberthaw which would have contaminated local ground water refused by the Welsh Office
1995 - complaint to the EU by Friends of the Earth Cymru and Friends of Cardigan Bay about the failure of the UK Government to implement EU regulations on Environmental Impact Assessments in relation to offshore oil and gas upheld
1997 - medical waste incinerator rejected on Anglesey
1997 - working with Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth and local environmental groups plans to import and burn orimulsion "the world's filthiest fuel" by National Power in Pembrokeshire stopped

2002 - Tir Mostyn wind farm approved after local group Vale of Clwyd Friends of the Earth and Friends of the Earth Cymru give evidence at inquiry
2003 - National Assembly for Wales votes to aim for Wales to produce 10% of its electricity demand from renewables by 2010 after Friends of the Earth Cymru campaigning
2004 - Application for 30 turbine wind farm at Scarweather Sands, Swansea Bay approved after Friends of the Earth Cymru campaign

1999 - Two GM crop trails stopped in Monmouthshire after Friends of the Earth Cymru and Chepstow raise concerns
2000 - GM free Wales motion campaigned for and written by Friends of the Earth Cymru passed by the National Assembly for Wales 54 - 0
2002 - No GM trials announced for Wales

2002 - After Friends of the Earth Cymru pressure the Assembly Government agrees to oppose UK Government plans to remove the public's right of hearing on GM safety issues before crops are approved for sale

2004 - Application for marketing of GM maize ChardonLL is withdrawn after Assembly Government refuses to determine it until laws to prevent contamination are in place

1998 - along with other environmental groups lobbied successfully for a duty to promote sustainable development to be enshrined in the Government of Wales Act 1998 for the Welsh Assembly.

Cymru