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We come together on this website, a mailing list and an annual face-to-face meeting to share information and develop joint strategies.
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The FME has been facilitated by the forests and rights NGO Fern since 1995 and meets annually. Meetings are held in a different country each year and hosted by a volunteer member organisation.
Between meetings the FME keep in contact via the FME mailing list. The list consists of nearly 200 people from more than 50 NGOs and covers most EU Member States.
If you or your organisation would like to join FME please fill in the membership request form on this website, or contact info@fern.org
The FME began in 1989 when a group of NGOs from several European countries joined efforts to stop Japanese companies’ destruction of rainforests. They originally met under the heading ‘Ban Japan from the Rainforest’.
By 1992 the group had expanded considerably in size and in the issues it dealt with. Its focus was no longer Japanese companies, but tropical rainforests and support for forest peoples in general. At a meeting in Munich, Germany, the group renamed itself the European Rainforest Movement, the European arm of the World Rainforest Movement. We decided to remain a loose movement with no formal membership or secretariat. Meetings were held twice a year, hosted by one of the participating groups and coordinated by Saskia Ozinga.
Activities of the groups participating in the European Rainforest Movement helped forest peoples’ struggle in places such as Sarawak, Malaysia and the Amazon become headline stories. They also helped European tropical rainforest campaigns to take off, thereby reducing tropical timber imports into several European countries.
In 1992, environmental organisations in the boreal forests began to look outside for help to protect the Taiga. Taiga Rescue Network was formed and groups working on the boreal forests joined the European Rainforest Movement. This decision to focus efforts beyond rainforests led in 1994 to the current name, Forest Movement Europe. A year later Saskia Ozinga co-founded Fern after the FME agreed we needed an organisation that would monitor what the EU was doing on forests, explain it to NGOs and coordinate NGO input.
Over the decades that followed, the FME has helped incubate numerous cross-organisational campaigns, helped share information about key upcoming threats to forests and been the venue for the creation of what was originally the European Environmental Paper Network (EPN) and is now Environmental Paper Network International.
FME 2018 was held in Elbiku, Estonia, hosted by Estonian Forest Aid.
FME members also expressed their concern with the planned Estonian EstFor Pulp and Paper mill.
The Forest Movement Europe (FME) is a network of more than 45 European NGOs from over 12 European countries working on forest-related issues with a focus on social justice.
The FME 2017 was held in Brasov, Romania, hosted by 2Celcius Network.
Main issues discussed were:
FME 2016 was held in Biggar, Scotland, hosted by Reforesting Scotland.
Main issues discussed were:
FME members also expressed their anger at the imminent logging of the Bialowieza Forest in Poland.
FME 2015 was held in Brussels, Belgium, hosted by Fern. It was held at the same time as Fern’s 20th anniversary.
Main issues discussed were:
FME members also took the opportunity to send a letter of protest to the Brazilian Embassy in Brussels against their cultivation of Genetically Engineered Trees.
FME 2014 was held in Vienna, Austria, hosted by Friends of the Earth Austria (Global 2000) and Finance and Trade Watch – Austria.
Main issues discussed were:
FME 2013 was held in Sweden and hosted by SSNC. The site visit was on the subject of threatened forests and clear-cuts in mid-Sweden.
One of the outcomes of the meeting was that forestry experts and conservationists from Indonesia, Tajikistan and twelve European countries sent a letter to the Norwegian government requesting Norway allocate a Norwegian forest protection billion to secure the Norwegian biodiversity in forests.
FME 2012 was held in Gaia, Portugal, hosted by Quercus.
Friends of the Earth France hosted the 2011 Forest Movement Europe Meeting from the 17th to the 19th of June in the Castle of Ligoure, Le Vigen.
The event took place at the Castle of Ligoure, surrounded by fields and forests, in the heart of an agricultural domain, crossed by a river. This place is managed by a non-profit organisation and is open for groups. The Castle of Ligoure is not a classical « hotel »: people are invited to organise and participate in cleaning bedrooms, dressing tables or washing dishes after meals.
In 2010, FME took place With thanks to in Nettersheim in Germany from Friday 11 June to Sunday 13. Our hosts were ARA www.araonline.de
Agenda items included:
FME 2009 was held in Switzerland in a managed forest in the village of Leuenberg. It was hosted by the Bruno Manser Fonds (www.bmf.ch). The meeting included a discussion with Jurgen Blaser, advisor to the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). It included representatives from many continents battling against unsustainable production of paper.
Main issues discussed during the meeting included:
FME 2008 was held in Bulgaria in the foothills of Rila National Park. It was hosted by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (http://bspb.org/index.php).
The main issues discussed during the meeting included:
Many of the organisations present signed-on to the European paper vision.
Held in Spain at an environmental centre in the Castle of Santa Cruz near to the Galician city of Coruña, the meeting was hosted by the university extension centre for the dissemination of environmental information (CEIDA) (www.ceida.org). One day was devoted to a strategy for Galician NGOs, before the FME meeting took place.
The main issues discussed during the meeting included:
FME 2006 was held in Slovakia in a forested village called Nova Sedlica. It was hosted by the WOLF. The meeting included a Taiga Rescue Network meeting and a full day discussion on the FME, its history, present and future.
Issues discussed during the meeting included:
– Paper production and consumption
– Biomass and biofuel
– The situation in Slovakia
– Illegal logging
– Forest certification
Held in Brussels and hosted by FERN, the 2005 FME coincided with FERN’s 10th anniversary. As well as the usual meeting FERN and Futurart Gallery hosted an art exhibition on forests. A whole day was devoted to paper. Other main issues discussed at the FME meeting included:
In 2004, FME was held in April in Helsinki, Finland. The main focus of the meeting was creating a strategy around the problems caused by paper production and consumption. It was hosted by the Finnish Nature League. The following issues were discussed:
In 2003, FME was held in May in Munich, Germany.
The following issues were discussed:
One of the meeting outcomes was a statement by the NGOs present exposing Malaysia’s attempts to greenwash its logging industry.
In 2002, FME was held in April in Talinn, Estonia. As well as seeing FSC certification in Estonia first hand, participants discussed the following issues:
In 2001, FME was held in April in Oslo, Norway. It was hosted by Friends of the Earth Norway. The following issues were discussed:
There were varied outcomes of the meeting including a letter sent to WWF raising concern about their links with the logging industry. A letter was also sent to FSC and other Indonesian certifiers in support of a statement by WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia) and more than 144 NGO and indigenous peoples’ organisations.
In 2000, FME was held in April in Antwerp, Belgium. The first day of the meeting was set aside for a discussion on strategy on boreal forests, jointly organised with the Taiga Rescue Network. Over the next two days, the following issues were discussed:
Two letters were signed by participants of the FME on the subjects of:
The first day of the meeting was set aside for a discussion on strategy in Africa jointly organised with Rainforest Action Network US. One of the main discussion points was how US and European groups could achieve more synergy to be able to strengthen the work of African NGOs and Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations. Over the next two days, the following issues were discussed:
Two letters were signed by participants of the FME on the subjects of:
In 1998, FME was held in March in a beautiful castle in Heemskerk, a town close to Amsterdam. It was hosted by http://www.milieudefensie.nl/english (Friends of the Earth Netherlands).
The main topics discussed were:
Urgent action alerts were on the following issues: