Abel was involved from 1998 to 2000 in the successful campaign by Native Forest Action to stop native logging on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. He later worked as a campaigner for Greenpeace from 2002 to 2006 during which time he was prominent in the New Zealand movement against genetically engineered food crops. He was also involved in actions against the proposed coal-fired power station Marsden B in Northland, New Zealand including a nine-day occupation in 2005 and the operation of a pirate radio station "Heatwave FM" which broadcast from Ruakaka in November 2006. The Marsden B proposal was later abandoned. Abel was one of the coordinators of the re-recording of the Don McGlashan song "Anchor Me" in 2005 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the bombing of the "Rainbow Warrior".