Greenpeace is present in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific.

To maintain its independence, Greenpeace does not accept donations from governments or corporations but relies on contributions from individual supporters and foundation grants.

Greenpeace has been campaigning against environmental degradation since 1971 when a small boat of volunteers and journalists sailed into Amchitka, an area north of Alaska where the US Government was conducting underground nuclear tests. This tradition of 'bearing witness' in a non-violent manner continues today, and our ships are an important part of all our campaign work.

We exist to expose environmental criminals, and to challenge government and corporations when they fail to live up to their mandate to safeguard our environment and our future.

In pursuing our mission, we have no permanent allies or enemies. We promote open, informed debate about society's environmental choices. We use research, lobbying, and quiet diplomacy to pursue our goals, as well as high-profile, non-violent conflict to raise the level and quality of public debate.

And we believe that the struggle to preserve the future of our planet is not about us. It's about you. Greenpeace speaks for 2.8 million supporters worldwide, and encourages many millions more than that to take action every day.

We take the name of our flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, from a North American Cree Indian legend. It described a time when humanity's greed has made the Earth sick. At that time, a tribe of people known as the Warriors of the Rainbow would rise up to defend her.

As one of the longest banners we've ever made summed things up, "When the last tree is cut, the last river poisoned, and the last fish dead, we will discover that we can't eat money..."

Greenpeace Histories

Below are just some of the positive environmental changes that Greenpeace has directly helped to bring about since we began campaigning in 1971.

September 2008: Six Greenpeace UK volunteers are acquitted of criminal damage by a Crown Court jury in a case that centred on the contribution made to climate change by burning coal. The charges arose after the six attempted to shut down the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent in 2007 by scaling the chimney and painting the Prime Minister's name down the side. The defendants pleaded 'not guilty' and relied in court on the defence of 'lawful excuse' - claiming they shut the power station in order to defend property of a greater value from the global impact of climate change. The landmark case marks the first victory of the 'lawful excuse' defense in a climate-change case in Britain. More

August 2008: After our campaign in the 1990's against toxic PVC the US Congress somewhat belatedly follows Europe's lead of outlawing toxic PVC in children's toys. More

July 2008: Ferrero (famous for its Nutella brand) becomes the latest large palm oil user to changes its position to support a moratorium on cutting down trees in Indonesia for palm oil plantations. More

May 2008: After just three weeks of actions, a hugely popular spoof advert and 115,000 online signatures Unilever changes its position to support a moratorium on cutting down trees in Indonesia for palm oil plantations. More

March 2008: After a campaign in Argentina, the Government announces a ban on energy wasting incandescent lightbulbs. More

December 2007: The World Bank's private lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) decides to sell its equity stake in Olam International Limited. Olam's involvement in illegal timber trade was first detailed in our Carving up the Congo report published earlier this year. The report illustrated how Olam was holding forest land in the Congo granted in breach of a moratorium on the granting of new logging titles, which the World Bank itself had helped to establish. It also described how Olam was sourcing timber from destructive and illegal operations through de-facto subcontracting agreements with third-party suppliers involved in illegal logging. More.

December 2007: The Irish Government announces what will be the EU's first ban on energy-wasting incandescent lightbulbs, by as early as January 2009. This simple but historic step came as governments met in Bali to discuss next steps on tackling the global climate emergency. Over the past year, a number of EU countries have talked about similar bans, but Ireland is the first to act. More.

November 2007: Together with other environmental groups, Greenpeace gets 1.5 million signatures of support and pushes through Argentina's first federal forest protection law. The new law includes a nationwide one-year moratorium on clearing of native forests while forest management regulations are put in place. After a year, any jurisdiction still lacking regulations will continue to be prohibited from issuing new logging and land clearing permits. The Forest Law also establishes environmental impact studies and public hearings - measures that will help protect forests where indigenous people live and small scale farmers. More.

May 2007: After four years of Greenpeace campaigning to bring an end to deep-sea bottom trawling, representatives from countries around the world gathered in Chile to carve out a fisheries agreement for the South Pacific region, protecting it from this incredibly destructive fishing method. From September 2007, bottom trawling vessels in the region will not be able to fish in areas that have, or are even likely to have, vulnerable marine ecosystems unless they complete an assessment showing that no damage will be caused. More.

May 2, 2007: Apple announces a phase-out of the most dangerous chemicals in its product line in response to a Webby-award winning online campaign by Greenpeace and Apple fans worldwide. The campaign challenged Apple to become a green leader in addressing the electronic waste problem. More.

March 7, 2007: The New Zealand government announces cancellation of proposed coal-burning power plant Marsden B. Greenpeace and local activists had mounted a four-year struggle which involved a nine-day occupation, high court challenges, protest marches, a record numbers of public submissions, Surfers Against Sulphur, public meetings, and a pirate radio station. More.

February 15, 2007: In a major blow to the UK government's plans to reinvigorate nuclear power, the High Court rules their decision to back a programme of new nuclear power stations was unlawful on the basis that they had failed to adequately consult citizens and groups who oppose nuclear power as a dangerous distraction from real solutions to climate change. More.

September 27, 2006: Estonia launches an investigation into the Probo Koala following three days of blockade by the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise. It is the first official action against the ship, which poisoned thousands and killed eight in the Ivory Coast when it dumped a cargo of toxic waste that had been refused by the Netherlands. After dumping its deadly cargo, the ship simply sailed to Estonia unhindered until Greenpeace took action. More.

July 25, 2006: McDonald's agrees to stop selling chicken fed on soya grown in newly deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest, then becomes instrumental in getting other food companies and supermarkets, such as Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, ASDA and Waitrose, to sign up to a zero deforestation policy as well. But it goes even further than that, and pressure from all these companies forces their suppliers, the big multinational soya companies such as Cargill, to agree a two-year moratorium on buying soya from newly deforested areas. More.

June 26, 2006: Dell becomes the latest company to promise to remove the worst toxic chemicals from it products, closely following the move of its rival HP. Both companies have been pressured by us to make their products greener and help tackle the growing mountain of toxic e-waste. More

May 31, 2006: Despite heavy lobbying by the nuclear power industry, Spain has confirmed that the country's 8 operating plants will be phased out in favour of clean, renewable energy. Spain joins Sweden, Germany, Italy and Belgium as the fifth European country to abandon nuclear power. More.

April 3, 2006: After months of pressure, consumer actions, online activism and more than 100,000 emails from Ocean Defenders everywhere, seafood suppliers Gorton's, Sealord and parent company Nissui withdraw their active support for Japanese whaling. Whalers announce that the 32 percent share in whaling operations owned by these commercial corporations will be transferred to a "public interest entity." The retreat isolates whaling economically and probably scuppers plans to find new markets for whale products. More

March 9, 2006: Electronics giant Hewlett Packard commits to a phase out plan for a range of hazardous chemicals in its products. More

February 16, 2006: French President Chirac announced the dramatic recall of the asbestos-laden warship Clemenceau -- it will be turning around and going back to France. Our actions, emails to Chirac and an embarrassing international scandal left France with little choice but to abandon the misguided attempt to dump its own toxic mess on India. More

February 14, 2006: An area twice the size of Belgium has been given greater protection in the Amazon after a Presidential decree. The decree by President Lula of Brazil to create the 6.4 million hectare (around 16 million acres) conservation area is a great victory for the people of the Amazon battling landgrabbers, cattle ranchers and loggers. The decree calls for around 1.6 million hectares to be permanently protected and totally off limits to logging and deforestation. More

February 7, 2006: Take ten years of difficult, dangerous, and at times, heartbreaking work. Add thousands of activists from around the world -- some who sent emails, some who stood on the blockades, some who voted against destruction with their wallets. Some who were beaten, some who were sued, some who were arrested. But eventually common sense has prevailed and one of the world's treasures, the Great Bear Rainforest, is saved from destruction. More

January 13, 2006: Our Argentine Ocean Defenders hit Nissui in their pockets. Nissui own about one third of Kyodo Senpaku -- the people who run the Japanese whaling fleet. Our cyberactivists convinced a major Nissui client in Argentina not to buy from a corporation involved in the killing of whales. More

Noveber 28, 2005 - Swiss voters vote no in a referendum to determine whether genetically engineered (GE) crops and animals can be grown in the alpine nation during the next five years. Their verdict in each and every one of the three main languages was the same, nein, non, no, to GE. More

November 24, 2005 - The city of Buenos Aires announces plans to implement a zero waste policy after a campaign by Greenpeace in Argentina. The plan aims to reduce dramatically the 4-5000 tonnes of waste the city dumps every day. Buenos Aires is the largest city so far to announce a zero waste plan. More

27 October, 2005 - The intervention of some home-grown celebrities to finally tips the balance in favour of protecting the forests of northern Argentina after a long fight by Greenpeace and the indigenous Wichi people. More

October 4, 2005 - Electronics giant Motorola and health and body care companies L'Occitane, Melvitacosm and Alqvimia are the latest companies to drop the most toxic chemicals from their products. More

August 17, 2005 - Electronics giant LG announces that it is committing to eliminating toxic chemicals from their entire consumer electronics range. More

July 5 , 2005 - Bad Barbies, toxic Teletubbies and rotten rubber ducks could have been slowly poisoning small children. The very chemicals that made these toys so soft and tempting to teething toddlers have been shown to damage organs in animals. But the European Parliament has banned manufacturers from using six of these toxic chemicals, freeing Europe from many toxic toys for good. More

April 29, 2005: Sony Ericsson announces that it will be phasing toxic chemicals out of its products. This is the result of the thousands of participants in our online action to pressure electronics companies to come clean. Sony Ericsson joins Samsung, Nokia and Sony as electronics companies who are phasing toxic chemicals out of all their products. More.

March 22, 2005: Photocopy giant Xerox agrees to stop buying timber pulp from StoraEnso, the Finnish national logging company which is cutting down one of Europe's last remaining ancient forests. Following pressure by Greenpeace cyberactivists, the company agrees a new procurement policy, ensuring that suppliers do not source timber from 'old-growth forests, conservation areas or other areas designated for protection.' More

November 11, 2004: Following years of campaiging in the Amazon by Greenpeace and other environmental organisations the Brazilian government stood up to the powerful forces of illegal loggers and greedy soya and beef barons by creating two massive protective reserves. The presidential decree has protected 2 million hectares of the Amazon forest by creating the Verde Para Sempre and Riozinho do Anfrisio extractive reserves. More

November 4, 2004: Bayer conceded to Greenpeace India that ALL its projects on genetically engineered (GE) crops have been "discontinued" in a letter sent by Aloke V. Pradhan, head of Bayer's Corporate Communications in India. This announcement followed earlier actions by Greenpeace outside Bayer's headoffice in Mumbai. More

October 29, 2004: MQ Publications (MQP) in the UK becomes the first UK publisher to publicly announce its collaboration with the Greenpeace Book Campaign. MQP has committed to phasing out paper that is not 'ancient forest friendly'. Their next five books, including 'The Armchair Environmentalist' will be printed on 100 percent recycled paper. They have also publicly challenged all UK publishers to follow suit. More

October 29, 2004: Greenpeace efforts to achieve tighter controls on the notorious shipbreaking industry result in an international agreement to treat obsolete ships as waste. Treaty committments by 163 nations can be expected to increase demands for decontamination of ships prior to export to the principle shipbreaking countries of India, Bangladesh, and Turkey. It will also create new demand for the development of "green" ship recycling capacity in developed countries. More

October 22, 2004: A decade of lobbying, scientific research, and direct non-violent action by Greenpeace and environmental groups around the world comes to fruition as Russia ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, bringing to force the world's sole global effo rt to address the dangers of global warming. More

September 30, 2004: Cyberactivists in Japan halt introduction of recycling-unfriendly and unreturnable plastic bottles when beer manufacture Asahi bows to citizen pressure. More

September 1, 2004: Ford Europe announce a reversal of the decision to scrap its fleet of fuel efficient electric Th!nK City cars, and instead investigate sending them to eager customers in Norway. Pressure applied by Greenpeace and web-based cyberactivists convinced Ford to Th!nk Again. When charged by electricity from renewable sources, these cars help fight the biggest threat to our planet: climate change. More

July 20, 2004: Queensland Energy Resources announce an end to the Stuart Shale Oil Project in Australia. Greenpeace campaigned against the project, which would have produced oil with four times the greenhouse impact as oil from the ground, since 1998. The project cost millions of dollars in government subsidies which should have been spent on renewable energy. More

June 22, 2004: Unilever, Coca Cola and McDonalds promise to phase out climate-killing chemicals in their refrigeration equipment. In 1992 Greenpeace launched Greenfreeze with the help of two scientists who pointed out how to avoid HFC's altogether. We found an old fridge factory, appealed to our supporters to pre-order enough units to finance a refit, helped build the market and Greenfreeze was born. Today there are over 100 million Greenfreeze refrigerators in the world, produced by all the major European, Chinese, Japanese and Indian manufacturers. More

June 17, 2004: Consumer power scored a victory following the announcement from electronics giant Samsung that it plans to phase out hazardous chemicals in its products. Seeing its brand-name products graded red - as containing hazardous chemicals - on the Greenpeace database, prompted the company to do the right thing on dangerous chemicals. More

June 10, 2004: Publishers of 34 Canadian magazines pledged to shift away from paper containing tree fibre from Canada's ancient forests thanks to ongoing pressure from the Markets Initiative coalition, of which Greenpeace Canada has a key role. The coalition has similar commitments from 71 Canadian book publishers including the Canadian publisher of Harry Potter, which printed the Order of the Phoenix on AFF paper in June 2003. Greenpeace Canada's work to protect its forests also encouraged Cascades, as the second largest producer of tissue products in Canada to commit to an Ancient Forest-Friendly purchasing policy.

June 1, 2004: Iceland steps back from plans to kill 500 minke, sei, and fin whales over two years, announcing a quota of only 25 minkes for the year. Greenpeace web activists fueled domestic opposition by gathering 50,000 worldwide signatures to a pledge to visit Iceland if the government would stop whaling. With a potential value of more than US$ 60 million in tourist spend, against a whaling programme which generated 3-4 million in profits, the pledge dramatically illustrated that whales are worth more to Iceland alive than dead. More

May 11, 2004: Thanks to years of pressure from environmental groups, the consumers, our cyberactivists and Greenpeace, we can celebrate a victory for the environment following the announcement by Monsanto that it would suspend further development or open field trials of its genetically engineered, Roundup Ready wheat. Monsanto stated that it was defering all further efforts to introduce the crop and that it was discontinuing breeding and field-level research of the wheat. This follows a similar announcement in 2003 when the company announced its withdrawal from the development of pharmaceutical crops. More

April 2, 2004: The UN International Maritime Organisation (IMO) designate the Baltic sea as a "Particularly Sensitive Sea Area," a decision which Greenpeace advocated for years. The IMO regulates shipping worldwide, and the new designation means tougher restrictions on oil tankers and other dangerous cargo vessels. The move was vehemently opposed by the shipping and oil industries. More

March 31, 2004: Following the controversial UK government approval of genetically engineered (GE) maize for commercial planting, the only company authorized to grow GE maize withdraws its application. In a victory for activists and consumers across Europe who lobbyed for tougher legislation and boycotted GE products, Bayer CropScience, a German company authorised to plant an herbicide-resistant variety of maize known as Chardon LL, said regulations on how and where the crop could be planted would make it "economically non-viable." Chardon LL was the crop pulled up by Greenpeace UK activists in 1999. The activists were acquitted of charges of criminal damage when the court agreed they were acting in the interest of protecting the environment.More

February 18, 2004: The Stockholm Convention comes into force following years of lobbying by Greenpeace and other environmental organisations. A key feature of the Convention calls for the elimination of all Persistent Organic Pollutants. They include intentionally produced chemicals, such as pesticides and PCBs, as well as by-products such as cancer-causing dioxins that are released from industries that use chlorine and from waste incinerators.More

February 4, 2004: Esso loses its court case against Greenpeace in France. As part of our "Don't buy Esso, Don't buy Exxon/Mobil" campaign, we developed a parody of Esso's logo with a double dollar sign: E$$O, which the oil giant (which trades under the name Exxon/Mobil in other parts of the world) attempted to censor. In a victory for freedom of expression on the web and for our campaign against the world's #1 environmental criminal, the French court defended the logo as an exercise in free speech. More

November 2003: Thanks to intensive lobbying by cyberactivists around the world, Greenpeace prevails against and attempt by Flag of Convenience States to remove the organisation from the International Maritime Organisation, the UN body charged with regulating shipping worldwide. Greenpeace action against unsafe oil tankers, such as the Prestige, had led to the ouster attempt on purported "safety" grounds. More

August 2003: The Deni, indiginous peoples of the Amazon, celebrate the end of an 18-year campaign to mark their land as protected from logging. 13 Greenpeace volunteers, including a member of the cyberactivist community, used GPS technology and a helicopter for a month to create an "eco-corridor" around 3.6 million hectares of land. More

May 2003: Intense lobbying efforts by Greenpeace and Global Witness results in UN Sanctions on Liberia for illegal logging. More

February 26, 2003: A French court agrees to lift an injunction against Greenpeace for creating a parody version of the Esso logo. In July Greenpeace was ordered to remove the logo from its website. On appeal, the court agreed the depiction on a website branding the oil giant Environmental Enemy Number One was protected speech. More

February 15, 2003: 30 million people worldwide create the largest anti-war protest in the history of humankind. More

February 7, 2003: McDonalds in Denmark bows to pressure and takes a leadership position in opening its first restaurants that use no climate-killing checmicals for refrigeration. A campaign by Greenpeace cyberactivists three years ago had led to a similar decision by Coca Cola to phase out HFC/HCFCs and adopt Greenpeace's innovative "Greenfreeze" technology. More

2002: Brazil declares a moratorium on export of Mahogany following revelations of the extent of illegal logging and timber trade. Greenpeace actions around the world help enforce the ban. More

2002: The European Union, followed by Japan, ratifies the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Intensive Greenpeace lobbying must continue because, for the protocol to enter into force, 55 parties to the convention must ratify it.

2002: Greenpeace helps defeat a major drive by pro-whaling nation Japan and its supporters to re-introduce commercial whaling through the International Whaling Commission. The re-introduction would have been disastrous for whales, which are now protected under the 1982 commercial whaling ban.

2001: Greenpeace turns 30 years old in September. The environmental group has grown from a small band of inspired volunteers to an international environmental organisation with offices in 30 countries. As always, Greenpeace thrives on committed activism and widespread, growing public support.

2001: After years of negotiations and pressure from Greenpeace, a global agreement for the elimination of a group of highly toxic and persistent man-made chemicals (Persistent Organic Pollutants or POPs), became a reality in May 2001 when a UN Treaty banning them is adopted.

2001: A historic agreement with logging companies is reached on the conservation of Canada's remaining coastal rainforest and approved by the government of British Columbia. This follows years of campaigning by Greenpeace, most recently targeting the trade and investments of companies involved in logging the endangered Great Bear Rainforest.

2001: Greenpeace lobbying, together with earlier expeditions to the Southern and Atlantic Oceans exposing flag of convenience (FOC or "pirate") vessels, are instrumental in the adoption of an "international plan of action" to combat illegal fishing in international waters.

2000-2001: An ever increasing and significant number of European retailers, food producers, and subsidiaries of multinational companies guaranteed to keep genetically engineered ingredients out of their products due to consumer pressure. Thanks to its consumer networks in 15 countries, Greenpeace tests products, collects information about food products and policies and exposes contamination cases.

2000: Further to Greenpeace's April-May expedition exposing pirate fishing in the Atlantic, an import ban is adopted on all bigeye tuna caught by FOC vessels in the Atlantic.

2000: Turkey's plans to build its first nuclear reactors at Akkuyu as part of a larger project to construct 10 reactors by the year 2020, is finally cancelled in July after eight years of campaigning by Greenpeace and others. The only remaining market for all major western nuclear companies is China.

2000: The Biosafety Protocol is adopted in Montreal, Canada. It aims to protect the environment and human health from risks of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) by controlling international trade of GMOs. Greenpeace has campaigned to stop the irreversible release of GMOs into the environment and to protect biodiversity from genetic pollution since 1995. More

1999: Nine countries ban the use of harmful phthalates in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) toys for children under three and the EU introduces an "emergency" ban on soft PVC teething toys.

1999: Japan is ordered to stop "experimental" fishing of Southern Bluefin Tuna by the International Law of the Sea Tribunal.

1998: The Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty comes into force. More

1998: A historic accord, the OSPAR Convention, bans the dumping of offshore installations at sea in the North-East Atlantic. The Convention also agrees on the phasing-out of radioactive and toxic discharges, as proposed by Greenpeace. More

1998: The oil company Shell finally agrees to bring its infamous offshore installation, the Brent Spar, to land for recycling. Greenpeace campaigned since 1995 to persuade the oil company not to dump disused installations in the ocean. More

1998: After 15 years of campaigning by Greenpeace, the EU finally agrees to phase out driftnet fishing by its fleets in EU and international waters by the end of 2001. France, Italy, the UK and Ireland, continued driftnetting in the North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean after Japan, Taiwan and Korea stopped driftnet fishing on the high seas when the worldwide ban came into force at the end of 1992.

1998: Logging giant MacMillan Bloedel announces it will phase out clearcut logging activities in British Columbia, Canada.

1997: After campaigning for urgent action to protect the climate since 1988 by Greenpeace and others, ministers from industrialised nations adopt the Kyoto Protocol agreeing to set legally-binding reduction targets on greenhouse gases.

1997: Greenpeace collects the UNEP Ozone Award for the development of Greenfreeze, a domestic refrigerator free of ozone depleting and significant global warming chemicals.

1996: The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is adopted at the United Nations. More

1995: Following a high profile action by Greenpeace, and public pressure, Shell UK reverses its decision to dump the Brent Spar oil platform in the Atlantic Ocean. More

1995: Greenpeace actions to stop French nuclear testing receive wide international attention. Over seven million people sign petitions calling for a stop to testing. France, UK, US, Russia and China commit to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

1995 Following a submission made with Greenpeace support, UNESCO designates Russia's Komi Forest as a World Heritage Site.

1994 After years of Greenpeace actions against whaling, the Antarctic whale sanctuary, proposed by France and supported by Greenpeace, is approved by the International Whaling Commission.

1994 Greenpeace actions exposing toxic waste trade from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries culminate in government negotiation of the Basel Convention banning this practice.

1993 The London Dumping Convention permanently bans the dumping at sea of radioactive and industrial waste world-wide. More

1992 France cancels this year's nuclear tests at Moruroa Atoll, following the Rainbow Warrior visit to the test zone, and vows to halt altogether if other nuclear nations follow suit.

1992 Worldwide ban on high seas large-scale driftnets comes into force.

1991 The 39 Antarctic Treaty signatories agree to a 50-year minimum prohibition of all mineral exploitation, in effect preserving the continent for peaceful, scientific purposes.

1991 Major German publishers go chlorine-free after Greenpeace produces chlorine-free edition of Der Spiegel as part of campaign against chlorine-bleaching.

1989 A UN moratorium on high seas large-scale driftnets is passed, responding to public outrage at indiscriminate fishing practices exposed by Greenpeace.

1988 Following at sea actions, and submissions by Greenpeace, a world-wide ban on incinerating organochlorine waste at sea is agreed by the London Dumping Convention.

1985 French nuclear testing in the South Pacific again becomes the subject of international controversy, particularly following the sinking of Greenpeace's ship, the Rainbow Warrior, by the French Secret Services.

1983 The Parties to the London Dumping Convention call for a moratorium on radioactive waste dumping at sea. As a result of Greenpeace's repeated actions against ocean dumping, this is the first year since the end of the second world war where officially no radioactive wastes are dumped at sea.

1982 After at sea actions against whalers, a whaling moratorium is adopted by the International Whaling Commission.

1982 EC bans import of seal pup skins in response to public criticism triggered by Greenpeace actions in Canada.

1978 Greenpeace actions halt the grey seal slaughter in the Orkney Islands, Scotland.

1975 France ends atmospheric tests in the South Pacific after Greenpeace protests at the test site.

1972 After the first Greenpeace action in 1971, the US abandons nuclear testing grounds at Amchitka Island, Alaska.

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