Rush to log Liberia’s forests will jeopardise the reform process
Date: March 2008
Under intense pressure from the timber industry – including many familiar faces from the past – the Forest Development Authority (FDA) of Liberia has started to issue timber contracts. Yet key legislation on community rights – to ensure an equitable balance between community, conservation and commercial forestry – is still in draft. The rush to allow a timber trade with a poor track record of corruption and trampling on community rights raises the spectre of Liberia’s forests once again undermining stability in this fragile country.
Land mark study calls for restoring land rights in Liberia
Date: January 2008
A new report, launched in Monrovia 30-1-2008, proposes formalizing customary Liberian land ownership by registering it as private property. This would signal the launch of a reform agenda that would restore the forest land rights of the overwhelming majority of Liberia’s rural populations; made up of poor agrarian families and clans.
European Parliament passes resolution to end taxpayer support for fossil fuels projects
Date: November 2007
Brussels, 29 November 2007 – With a resounding majority (540 MEPs in favour), the European Parliament today passed a resolution on trade and climate change which calls for “the discontinuation of public support, via export credit agencies and public investment banks, for fossil fuel projects”.
NGOs Walk Out of OECD Meeting on Official Export Credits
Date: November 2007
Paris, 5 November 2007. Citing their frustrations at years of silence in response to repeated proposals for effective implementation of environmental and social standards, as well as for coherence with related OECD goals and agreements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) representing hundreds of thousands of taxpayers in OECD member nations, walked out of an OECD meeting called to consult civil society organisations.
Expropriation begins at Ilisu Dam site
Date: October 2007
The European ECA campaign has learned during a site visit, that without the knowledge of responsible authorities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the Turkish government has begun to expropriate the first affected villages at the controversial Ilisu dam site on the Tigris river in a move that violates conditions imposed by European export credit agencies.

Liberian Government actions threaten to violate the newly adopted Forestry Law & undermine ongoing forest sector reform
Date: June 2007
A NGO Coalition for Liberia press release. Despite persistent civil society advice that the Government of Liberia prioritizes the development of the National Forestry Management Strategy, a major prerequisite for granting new concessions, the government is set to go ahead with plants to grant at least ten (10) new timber concessions before the end of the year.
Revised OECD export credit standards empty basket for NGOs
Date: April 2007
A joint ECA-Watch/FERN press release: On 23-24 April 2007, the OECD's Export Credit Working Group (ECG) appears set to approve revised and weakened environmental and social standards governing projects supported by export credit guarantees or loans of greater than 10 million SDRs (US$15.3 million or 11.2 million).

Article 13 of the virtually final negotiating draft of these standards, known as the 'Recommendation on Common Approaches on Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits', allows export credit agencies (ECAs) to opt out of applying any standards at all, provided that they report this to the notoriously secretive and effectively unaccountable OECD working group.
Why Investment Matters: Reclaim Investment for the Public Good
Date: April 2007
Joint press release by FERN, The Corner House and CRBM:
Every day, billions of dollars move in and out of countries as investors seek the best returns on their money. The pattern of such investments – who invests where and on what terms - profoundly affects the livelihoods of ordinary citizens around the globe, determining who accumulates wealth and at whose expense.

In his new book Why Investment Matters: The Political Economy of International Investments, economist and activist Kavaljit Singh explains the central role of transnational corporations (TNCs) and other key players in determining investment patterns.
Human rights abuses, land conflicts, broken promises
Date: January 2007
A new report by WRM of carbon offset projects in Uganda shows a string of human rights abuses linked with carbon trading and that carbon projects undermine development.
UK Government decision undermines its own timber policy
Date: December 2006
A joint press release by FERN, FoE, Greenpeace and WWF stating that the UK Government's timber procurement policy accepts forest destruction as sustainable. The press release is a response to a press release by DEFRA anouncing the UK Government accepts PEFC, SFI, CSA and FSC as proof of sustainable timber production and of MTCC as proof of legal timber production in light of their procurement policy.
Bad for the South, bad for the North, and bad for the climate
Date: October 2006
New Book Exposes Flaws of Carbon Trading. The book is published by Sweden’s Dag Hammarskjold Foundation together with the international Durban Group for Climate Justice and the UK-based NGO The Corner House.

‘This is the most absurd and impossible market human civilization has ever seen,’ said Indian activist and researcher Soumitra Ghosh, a contributing author on carbon projects in the South. ‘Carbon trading is bad for the South, bad for the North, and bad for the climate.’ ‘ Claims that carbon credits mitigate climate change have not been verified’, added Jutta Kill of FERN, another contributor to the book. Carbon trading impedes positive investment in the South while thwarting popular movements against subsidies for fossil fuel extraction, she said.

In detailed case studies from nine Third World countries, the book shows how carbon offset projects such as those promoted under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) have had a detrimental impact on local communities. At the same time, they prolong industrialized countries’ excessive pollution of the atmosphere.

Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatisation and Power is available for download at http://www.dhf.uu.se A paper edition will be published by the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation in November 2006.
Ilisu Dam project moves Turkey away from accession
Date: May 2006
In a workshop held on 11 May 2006, the European Parliament discussed the planned Ilisu dam project in the context of Turkey’s process of accession to the European Union.
FERN and WWF submission to CPET
Date: February 2006
FERN and WWF presented their findings on the UK Government's assessment of forest certification schemes, carried out by CPET. The report includes recommendations for improving the CPET criteria.

FERN submission to Environmental Audit Committee
Date: January 2006
FERN's submission on sustainable timber and government procurement to the UK's parliamentary select committee

Disregard for Indigenous Peoples' Rights: 64 NGOs urge the EU not to accept Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme
Date: December 2005
64 NGOs from 21 countries urge the European Union, European governments and the European timber industry to reject the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme MTCC. The NGOs signing the statement do not acknowledge MTCC as a guarantee for sustainable or legal timber forest management because the MTCC does not respect indigenous peoples' rights.
OECD governments grant export subsidies for large dams: A Trojan horse for enviornmental destruction, NGOs say
Date: September 2005
Judith Neyer of FERN: “The OECD governments should adopt the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams for all future dam projects supported with official export credits. They should not offer any further export subsidies for hydropower projects.”
UK NGOs slam DEFRA decision to approve PEFC & SFI
Date: August 2005
UK NGOs sent out a strong worded release condemning UK decision to approve PEFC and SFI. It should be noted though that DEFRA states in its own release:

"PEFC is on probation until it has demonstrated to our satisfaction that its national organisations are all following the new standards. We will also be watching to see that only those SFI certificates that confirm the required percentage of sustainable timber are accepted by government buyers."

Delegates from Turkey ask EU to keep a close eye on the planned Ilisu dam
Date: June 2005
A delegation of representatives from the region Hasankeyf/Diyarbakir in Southeast Turkey visited Brussels from 15 to 17 June 2005 to discuss the planned Ilisu dam project in the context of Turkey’s process of accession to the European Union. The delegates say that EU standards are not being met.