Radio Mundo Real

In April 2015, the Supreme Court of Nepal directed the government to shut down the controversial Godawari Marbles Factory, located in the Lalitpur district, in a move to protect the environment and biodiversity. The justices stated that the factory’s operations, including quarrying and extraction works, caused adverse impacts on the local environment and threatened the existence of globally important flora and fauna.

This was the result of a relentless environmental and legal struggle that Pro Public – Friends of the Earth Nepal had started in 1992, a year after its emergence as an organization. This struggle went on until reaching its goal: shutting down the mining company’s operations in the project.

Real World Radio interviewed activist Nripendra Jung of Pro Public – Friends of the Earth Nepal to learn the details of that case, one of the great victories of environmentalism in his country. The talk was given within the Sustainability School of Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific and the Biennial General Meeting (BGM) of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), held during the last week of November in the Indonesian regency of South Lampung, province of Lampung.

Nripendra is 22 years old and speaks with a conceptual and political clarity that is striking for his age. We used this opportunity to talk about his assessments of the Sustainability School and his impressions of the BGM, the work of Pro Public in Nepal, the situation of human rights defenders and environmentalists in his country, among other things.