About Greenpeace:

Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation that uses a non - violent direct action to expose global environmental problems and to force solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.

The goal of Greenpeace is to ensure that the ability of the earth to nurture the life in all its diversity.



How Greenpeace Australia Pacific Began:

The first Australian protest under the Greenpeace banner was a direct action against a whaling station in Albany, WA, in 1977.

The protestors included a newspaper journalist from Sydney and a few members of Greenpeace International. Together, they then established Greenpeace New South Wales.

Meanwhile, an Adelaide group, Project Jonah, had also set out to stop commercial whaling in Australia. In the year, 1978, they did just that; and by 1979, as Greenpeace Adelaide Incorporated, they were taking their message around the world.

During the 1980's, this fledgling organisation protested against the slaughter of baby harp seals in New foundland, French nuclear testing in the South Pacific and other disarmament issues. Back home, they campaigned against the uranium mining.

By the year of 1986, a world wide shift in the environmental awareness had begun. Greenpeace International proposed the merger of the New South Wales and as well as Adelaide offices. For economic reasons and to maximise public support. Greenpeace Australia was incorporated, with much fanfare, in 1987.

Greenpeace Pacific opened in Suva, Fiji, in 1994, the same year as the French underground nuclear testing program ended.

Pacific campaigns had previously been run from the Greenpeace New Zealand office in Auckland. It was in Auckland Harbour that the French bombed our flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. The bombing ricocheted around the world.

In early 1998 Greenpeace Australia and Greenpeace Pacific teamed up to become Greenpeace Australia Pacific (GPAP), an environmental force working on a range of issues for the region. GPAP now has more than 100,000 financial supporters.



Campaining the Pacific:

Greenpeace’s long history in the Pacific began sometime in the early 1970s, when founder David McTaggart sailed his yacht, The Vega to Moruroa in protest against nuclear testing in Polynesia.

Since the 1980s, Greenpeace has campaigned extensively in the region establishing its first office in the Pacific (outside of Aotearoa/ New Zealand) in 1994. It now has bases in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

In the 1980’s and 1990s the Warrior lead peace flotillas to Moruroa and relocated the population of Rongelap island who were suffering health effects from nuclear fallout. The ship's crew also protested against nuclear waste transports through the Pacific.

Today, in the Pacific, Greenpeace campaigns for sustainable fishing and to protect the ocean’s biodiversity, and works with local communities to oppose illegal and destructive logging and to develop eco-forestry projects in the Solomons and PNG. Greenpeace has also worked in the Pacific to eliminate toxic pollution and to prevent harmful climate change.




For more information on Greenpeace, visit the following link: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/