Global Response carries out campaigns to prevent environmental destruction of particularly valuable and vulnerable places worldwide. Patterned after the successful strategy of Amnesty International, we accomplish our goals through letter-writing by our worldwide membership. The letters are individually written (in contrast to form letters, faxes, or emails) and have proved very effective: 44% of our campaigns have already achieved their goals. Just in the last year, we conducted campaigns in 17 countries and celebrated 9 campaign victories. Considering that these campaigns target industrial giants like Shell Oil and financial giants like the World Bank, this is an impressive track record. Some recent successes: Global Response helped people in a cloud forest region of Ecuador stop construction of an open-pit copper mine there; we helped activists in Uganda stop the sale and destruction of the Mabira rainforest; we helped convince the president of Venezuela to stop construction of coal mines on indigenous peoples' lands; we persuaded the United Nations Mission in Kosovo to relocate Roma (Gypsy) families who were suffering lead poisoning in a lead-contaminated refugee camp; and we helped indigenous peoples in southern Belize defend their right to say NO to oil development in their traditional territories. Global Response campaigns are launched only when requested by local grassroots groups, and only after careful research as to need, timing, and strategy. The local groups are often indigenous peoples, and our work includes helping them preserve their culture and way of life as well as the environment on which they depend, and which they are best suited to protect. Global Response produces campaign materials for three age groups: adults, teens and children. Many classrooms and clubs participate in our letter-writing campaigns. At www.globalresponse.org, you can learn about our current campaigns, sign up to receive action alerts by mail or email, and make secure online donations. Financial information is available in our Annual Reports (see About Us at www.globalresponse.org) . Checks are gratefully received at Global Response, PO Box 7490, Boulder CO 80306. See executive director Paula Palmer's article, "Breathing Life into the Struggle: Victories for Indigenous Peoples and Transnational Allies," in the January issue of Peacework, www.peaceworkmagazine.org

Global Response is a network of over 5,500 letter-writing members in 100 countries. We are adults, teens and children, and through Global Response we TAKE ACTION to protect the planet that is our common home.

Global Response empowers people of all ages, cultures, and nationalities to protect the environment by creating partnerships for effective citizen action.

At the request of indigenous peoples and grassroots organizations, Global Response organizes urgent international letter campaigns to help communities prevent many kinds of environmental destruction.

Global Response involves young people as well as adults in these campaigns to develop in them the values and skills for global citizen cooperation and earth stewardship.

We act at the request of local grassroots groups who believe an international campaign is necessary to win their battles for environmental protection and humnan rights. In each situation, a community of color is fighting for the right to manage and protect its natural resources, determine its form of “development,” and protect public health and safety. In many cases, they feel they are fighting for the lives and the survival of their culture. They frequently suffer military and police repression, incarceration, defamation, death threats, injury and murder when they stand up to defend their rights and protect their environment. This past year we issued emergency email alerts on behalf of local campaign leaders in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Uganda, Honduras and Turkmenistan, who were being attacked, threatened or jailed for their non-violent protests. The importance of the campaigns to the affected communities can hardly be overstated.

Some of our current campaigns (1) support Luo tribal people in Kenya whose livelihoods and a wetland ecosystem are threatened by an American corporation; (2) support Penan indigenous people in Malaysia who are refusing access to logging companies in their rainforest homelands;(3) support local fishermen and environmentalists in India who oppose construction of an industrial port that will impact the marine ecosystem they depend on as well as habitat for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles; (4) urge the World Bank to reject funding for construction of dams in Uganda that threaten Lake Victoria; (5) protect a globally-important wetland ecosystem in India which is critical for the survival of many endangered species including the Asiatic Elephant and many bird species. See our current campaigns at www.globalresponse.org

Paula Palmer, Executive Director, has researched and written Global Response action alerts and directed Global Response campaigns since 1996. She is a sociologist and writer with 30 years' experience working with indigenous populations in Central America and the United States. In Costa Rica, she published five books of oral history in collaboration with Afro-Caribbean and indigenous peoples, through a community empowerment process known as Participatory Action Research.

Paula is co-founder of several nonprofit organizations on Costa Rica's Atlantic Coast, through which local communities pursue a style of development appropriate to their traditional cultures and natural environment.From 1995 to 2001 she served as editor for health and environment of Winds of Change magazine, a Native American quarterly. She holds an M.A. degree in sociology from Michigan State University and is adjunct faculty in the Environmental Studies Department of the Naropa University. She is profiled in American Environmental Leaders From Colonial Times to the Present (ABC−CLIO, 2000) and Biodiversity, A Reference Handbook (ABC−CLIO 1998).

In 2004, she was honored with two regional awards for her activism: The Elise Boulding Peacemaker of the Year Award was given by the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, and the Jack Gore Memorial Peace Award was given by the American Friends Service Committee.

- Arden Buck is an engineer/physicist and founder of Buck Research, Inc. A recipient of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Technology Advancement Prize, he currently leads a team developing a database of strategies for use by environmentalists and human rights activists. He has also produced video documentaries of Contra attacks in Nicaragua, relief work in Nicaragua, and the true costs of the Gulf War. He is a longtime member of Global Response, concerned about globalization's negative impacts on the environment and human rights.

- Jane Bunin - is an ecologist who is an Adjunct Professor at Naropa University and President of a small ecological consulting firm, Natural Science Associates, Inc. She holds a doctoral degree in Plant Ecology from the University of Colorado and a masters in Biochemistry from Brandeis University. In addition to environmental science, her areas of work include sustainability, rare species, ethnobotany, wetlands, and environmental impact assessment. She serves on the board of the Village Arts Coalition, and is Chair of theBoard of Alandi Ashram, a nonprofit educational and non-denominational spiritual community. A life-long activist, she is also an enthusiastic traveler, outdoorswoman, and folk dancer.

- A. Scott DuPree - is a doctoral student at the Graduate School for International Studies at Denver University and serves as Alliance Fund Network Coordinator for the Global Greengrants Fund. He has worked for over twenty years to strengthen civil society organizations concerned with social justice, human rights and development in Southern Africa and Brazil. He was regional director for Southern African programs at the Synergos Institute and a founding director of Conectas Human Rights in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Scott holds a Masters Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and a BA in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College.

- Doris Hass - is a life-long community activist who was inducted into the Boulder YWCA Hall of Fame in 1998. Doris served as president of the very successful Boulder Public Library Foundation for 20 years. She is past president of the Boulder Seniors Foundation and the American Association of University Women (AAUW). She holds a masters in art history from New York University and taught art history for 10 years in New York and Michigan.

- Brian Ross - is the Founder and CEO of TWIST a company which manufactures environmentally friendly cleaning products. Previous to TWIST he was a co-founder of both Oregon Chai, the leading chai drink in the world, and Organic Vintners, the biggest importer of organic wines in the United States. Brian graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Industrial & Labor Relations and has a LLM from Lewis & Clark Law School. Brian is also on the Board of Directors of Intercambio de Comunidades, a nonprofit focused on building respectful communities through language education, cultural exchange and friendship.

The Campaigns Advisory Committee works with the executive director to select Global Response campaigns. Members include a physician with expertise in international public health, a geologist, a sociologist specializing in environmental justice, an international human rights lawyer, and a field biologist.
When Global Response receives a request to help a local community with a campaign, we select and prioritize campaigns by these criteria:

1) Evidence of an urgent and significant environmental threat
2) Existence of a strong, democratice and non-violent local movement
3) Reliable scientific data
4) Reliable communication with the local community
5) Potential to set important precendents or influence policy change
6) A promising letter-writing strategy

Nature's Own
Threshold Foundation
Sulvia M. Asten
Arden & Betsy Buck
Jane Bunin
Calhoun Family Endowed Fund
Fred Clark
Cynda & Marcel Collins-Arsenault
Randy Compton
Community Shares of Colorado
Richard Counihan
Scott Dupree
Ettinger Foundation
James Gribin
Doris Hass
Cary Hopper & Susan Synpolt
Walter Kingsbery
Glenn Korff
Jared Polis
Rainforest Information Centre
Kathleen Ruff
Solstice Institute
John Steiner & Margo King
Terry Stuart
Sue Thompson
Weaver Family Foundation
Whole Systems Foundation
Nancy Youell
Sandra Younghans

Global Response’s campaign strategies are unique in important ways.
 We act only at the request of local grassroots groups who feel an international campaign is necessary to prevent serious environmental destruction.

 We are often the first international organization to respond. Through our letter campaigns and coalition-building, we leverage technical, legal and financial support from other international organizations.

 We build new coalitions for each campaign, involving many different kinds of organizations in new collaborations.

 We produce educational materials about our campaigns for children and teenagers as well as adults. By participating in our campaigns, young people learn how to work collaboratively and effectively as world citizens and earth stewards.

We know of no other organization that offers this kind of help to embattled communities, regardless of where they are or what environmental threat they face.

1)Carry out 6 new campaigns to help local communities win their struggles to protect the environment and defend their human rights.
2)Expand to 3 full-time employees.
3)Develop meaningful partnerships with green businesses.
4)Increase our international membership by 25% in all member categories: adults, teens and children.

November, 2007 - We helped persuade the Ugandan government to preserve the magnificent Mabira rainforest
October, 2007 - We helped convince the Ecuadorian government to shut down an open-pit copper mine in a cloud forest region.
March, 2007 - We helped convince the President of Venezuela to decree "No New Coal Mines" in Venezuela.

Visit our website to read more about our campaign victories!