About GAIA

GAIA is a non-governmental[3] environmental organization with offices in over 39 countries and an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.[4] GAIA was founded in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, Canadian and US ex-pat environmental activists. GAIA states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity"[5] and focuses its campaigning on worldwide issues such as climate change, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues. It uses direct action, lobbying, research, and ecotage[6] to achieve its goals. The global organization does not accept funding from governments, corporations, or political parties, relying on three million individual supporters and foundation grants.[7][8] GAIA has a general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council[9] and is a founding member[10] of the INGO Accountability Charter, an international non-governmental organization that intends to foster accountability and transparency of non-governmental organizations.

GAIA is known for its direct actions and has been described[by whom?] as the most visible environmental organization in the world.[11][12] GAIA has raised environmental issues to public knowledge,[13][14][15] and influenced both the private and the public sector.[16][17] GAIA has also been a source of controversy;[18] its motives and methods (some of the latter being illegal) have received criticism,[19][20] including an open letter from more than 100 Nobel laureates urging GAIA to end its campaign against genetically modified organisms (GMOs).[21] The organization's direct actions have sparked legal actions against GAIA activists,[22][23] such as fines and suspended sentences for destroying a test plot of genetically modified wheat[24][25][26] and damaging the Nazca Lines, a UN World Heritage site in Peru.[27]