ELA

Earthlife Africa (ELA) is a membership driven organization of environmental and social justice activists, founded to mobilize civil society around environmental issues in relation to people. ELA Johannesburg (Jhb) branch was established in August 1988 as the first branch of the organization, which grew to many branches in the early nineties and is currently concentrated in three branches in South Africa and one in Namibia (see Contact us).

Branches are largely autonomous, but linked through the ELA Statement of Belief (see Policy) and common campaign activities. ELA is essentially a volunteer organization that relies on individual commitment to drive campaigns, although recently donor funding has been accessed for a number of initiatives. The Jhb branch has secured funding for two large projects over the last seven years: The GreenHouse Peoples' Environmental Centre, which has since become a separate non-profit entity (section 21) with involvement of the City of Johannesburg and other stakeholders and SECCP. All funded projects are overseen by voluntary Steering Committees.

Earthlife Africa's main activities are campaign related. This includes lobbying and advocacy with a range of stakeholders including government, building campaigns at community level through sharing information and skills, engaging with environmental impact assessments, engaging the media, and researching and producing information materials. While historically best know for highlighting environmental injustice, we also work to promote ecologically sound alternatives, like renewable energy and efficiency, organic farming and adopting the 'Zero Waste' approach to industrial pollution and waste management. We have also put considerable effort into participation in government policy development processes.

ELA Jhb has a branch meeting on the thrid Saturday of every month at 14h00 - the venue is currently the GreenHouse Project in Joubert Park. The Nuclear Energy Costs the Earth Campaign has office space with the GreenHouse Project in Joubert Park. Other working groups, such as the Atteridgeville/Tswane group and Toxics working group meet on an ad hoc basis. The branch has 4 office bearers (see Contacts) and decisions are made by consensus.

Earthlife Africa was instrumental in establishing the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF) in 1994 and South African branches continue to participate; they are also members of SACAN. ELA is an affiliate member of Friends of the Earth International, as well as founding members of the Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives (GAIA, also standing for Global Anti-Incineration Alliance) and the South African Freeze Against Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE). All ELA branches meet at Annual Congress to renew their affiliation, deal with organizational matters and learn from each other's experiences.
For more organisational information see the Policies topic.

Link here to Earthlife Africa site maintained by the Cape Town branch