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FERN
Fern (also Stichting Fern) is a Dutch foundation created in 1995. It is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) set up to keep track of the European Union's (EU) involvement in forests and coordinate NGO activities at the European level. Fern works to protect forests and the rights of people who depend on them.
Although Fern is known for its work on forests, since 2000 it has widened its scope to include climate, forest governance, trade and sustainable supply chain as many of the decisions made in these areas have a direct or indirect impact on forests and forest peoples' rights. In all these areas, Fern collaborates with many environmental groups and social movements across the world.
Fern is a non-hierarchical flat organization and has no director. In 2024, it had three offices (Brussels, Belgium; Montreuil, France; and Moreton-in-Marsh, UK) and around 18 staff; their registered office is in Delft.
Fern's official mission statement is "To increase understanding of, and access to, European policy making; and to campaign for policies and practices in Europe that focus on forests and forest peoples’ rights and deliver economic, environmental and social justice globally.”
Fern's origin lies in the World Rainforest Movement meeting in Penang in 1989. At this meeting Southern participants decided they needed closer co-operation with a network of like-minded European organisations to further their objectives. An already existing ad hoc European coalition of NGOs responded and adopted the name European Rainforest Movement. This movement changed its name into Forest Movement Europe in 1994 after linking up with the newly formed Taiga Rescue Network (1992) and widening its focus to all forests, including Russia.
As most NGOs of the Forest Movement Europe were working at national level, and increasingly trade and aid decisions that impacted on forests were made at EU level, it was felt by most in the movement that more attention should be given to influencing the EU institutions. So, in March 1995 Saskia Ozinga (formerly working for Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands) and Sian Pettman (formerly working for the European Commission) created the Fern with a mandate to monitor EU activities relating to forests, and inform and educate the Forest Movement Europe about these activities and facilitate joint advocacy work towards the different EU institutions.
Starting in 1995 with Ozinga and Pettman both working part-time, the former from a shed in Oxford, the latter from a desk in Brussels, Fern has grown to an organisation of between 15 and 20 staff, while its area of work has widened to include climate change, carbon trading, finance, governance and development aid. Consistent themes in Fern's campaigns include tackling the corruption, lack of transparency and power imbalances which it says are among the universal causes of both legal and illegal forest destruction, and putting forest communities at the heart of decision-making about policies affecting them.
Fern's way of working still reflects its origin, as in its activities the organisation aims to create ad hoc or permanent North-South, North-North or South-South NGO coalitions to jointly develop campaigns or activities, mostly - but not always - targeted at the EU institutions. Facilitation of the wider movement and supporting Fern's partners in the South remain Fern core activities.
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FERN
Fern (also Stichting Fern) is a Dutch foundation created in 1995. It is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) set up to keep track of the European Union's (EU) involvement in forests and coordinate NGO activities at the European level. Fern works to protect forests and the rights of people who depend on them.
Although Fern is known for its work on forests, since 2000 it has widened its scope to include climate, forest governance, trade and sustainable supply chain as many of the decisions made in these areas have a direct or indirect impact on forests and forest peoples' rights. In all these areas, Fern collaborates with many environmental groups and social movements across the world.
Fern is a non-hierarchical flat organization and has no director. In 2024, it had three offices (Brussels, Belgium; Montreuil, France; and Moreton-in-Marsh, UK) and around 18 staff; their registered office is in Delft.
Fern's official mission statement is "To increase understanding of, and access to, European policy making; and to campaign for policies and practices in Europe that focus on forests and forest peoples’ rights and deliver economic, environmental and social justice globally.”
Fern's origin lies in the World Rainforest Movement meeting in Penang in 1989. At this meeting Southern participants decided they needed closer co-operation with a network of like-minded European organisations to further their objectives. An already existing ad hoc European coalition of NGOs responded and adopted the name European Rainforest Movement. This movement changed its name into Forest Movement Europe in 1994 after linking up with the newly formed Taiga Rescue Network (1992) and widening its focus to all forests, including Russia.
As most NGOs of the Forest Movement Europe were working at national level, and increasingly trade and aid decisions that impacted on forests were made at EU level, it was felt by most in the movement that more attention should be given to influencing the EU institutions. So, in March 1995 Saskia Ozinga (formerly working for Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands) and Sian Pettman (formerly working for the European Commission) created the Fern with a mandate to monitor EU activities relating to forests, and inform and educate the Forest Movement Europe about these activities and facilitate joint advocacy work towards the different EU institutions.
Starting in 1995 with Ozinga and Pettman both working part-time, the former from a shed in Oxford, the latter from a desk in Brussels, Fern has grown to an organisation of between 15 and 20 staff, while its area of work has widened to include climate change, carbon trading, finance, governance and development aid. Consistent themes in Fern's campaigns include tackling the corruption, lack of transparency and power imbalances which it says are among the universal causes of both legal and illegal forest destruction, and putting forest communities at the heart of decision-making about policies affecting them.
Fern's way of working still reflects its origin, as in its activities the organisation aims to create ad hoc or permanent North-South, North-North or South-South NGO coalitions to jointly develop campaigns or activities, mostly - but not always - targeted at the EU institutions. Facilitation of the wider movement and supporting Fern's partners in the South remain Fern core activities.
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