Friends of Nature is the earliest national wide grassroots environmental NGO in China. It’s officially registered in 1994 as a private non-enterprise organization under Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau. FON plays a leading role among Chinese environmental NGOs till today.
• 2011, FON filed the first public interest litigation at Qvjing, Yunnan province. The main issue of this case is relevant to chromium contamination. This case has promoted the clean-up of chromium contamination across the country, but also influenced the legislation process of Civil Procedure Law and Environmental Protection Law. 
• In January 2015, FON has filed the first public interest litigation after the revised Environmental Protection Law officially effect and established the public interest litigation mechanism under Chinese legal system in Nanping, Fujian province.
• Till the end of 2018, FON has filed 40 environmental public interest litigation cases and 34 of them were successfully registered at the courts across the country.
• Till now, FON has built its expertise in following areas: rule of law,public health,climate change,marine protection and biodiverstiy