Establishing local monitoring group

In 1993 Friends of the Earth Scotland began a scheme to train activists in Scotland to examine and interpret information about air polluting industries held on public registers by local authorities. Examining the registers revealed that many of Scotland's hospital incinerators are operating below standards. This information was subsequently used to close down one incinerator which was emitting high levels of hydrogen chloride.

In 1996 a survey was published of community-based environmental monitoring programmes in Australia. It lists more than 200 community groups from around the country who are monitoring everything from echidnas, frogs and mallee fowl to roadsides, cavbves, arid lands, estauaries and coasts. For example, in farmlands such things as salinity, nutrient runoff, soil health and weed invasions are bing monitored.