He serves on the advisory board and is Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, an environmental think tank and advocacy organization.

He was active on human rights issues in the 1980s when he served on the Board of Directors of Nigeria's Civil Liberties Organization.

In 2011, Bassey founded the Ecological think tank, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation promoting environmental climate justice and food sovereignty in Nigeria and Africa.

[13] At the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Bassey - despite being accredited - was "physically kept out" of a meeting.

[14][citation needed] Bassey led Friends of the Earth International from 2008 to 2012 and for two decades, was the executive director of Environmental Rights Action.