Since the tragic
Minamata
Accident and the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, concerned
activists have played an active role on the front line of
environmental protection. Their actions have made a significant
contribution to preventing deterioration in the environment and
they have facilitated the development of environmental policies.
Historically in China, public awareness of environmental protection
has not been a strong point. It was taken for granted that where
there were people, there would also be pollution. Here, people's
thoughts would turn to concern for environmental protection only
after they were adequately fed and clothed.
It
is the mission of those involved in environmental protection,
either working on their own or through establishing organizations
to pursue a goal of creating an ideal environment for mankind.
Zhang Chunshan (an ordinary peasant living in Lijiang county of
Yunnan Province) has devoted himself to the protection of the
Chinese yew. Tian Guirong (a woman of Henan
Province) has collected 50 tons of used batteries to help
protect the environmental. As well as the work of concerned
individuals like these, there are many Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs) in the environmental field. All have a very
apparent dedication to the cause of environmental protection.
With China's modernization, NGOs are playing a more prominent role
in the development of the country. NGOs occupy a niche which lies
somewhere between government and the enterprises. It is a third
form of organization.
Government's attitude towards the environmental NGOs is very
important to their development. This article provides a briefing on
the present state of development of environmental NGOs in
China.
Development of China's Environmental NGOs
China had no environmental NGOs before 1994. When Beijing launched
her first bid for the Olympic Games in 1993 and was asked by
officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), our
delegation did not even know how to answer the question whether or
not there were environmental NGOs in China.
The significant role of environmental NGOs in developed countries
has served as an inspiration to those in China with an insight in
the field. The first environmental NGO in China was formally
registered on March 31, 1994. This was the Academy for Green
Culture, affiliated to the non-governmental Academy for Chinese
Culture. It is now called Friends of
Nature (FON) for short. Liang Congjie, a descendant of Liang
Qichao (a prominent reformer of the late Qing Dynasty) and a member
of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),
is the President of this organization.
More environmental NGOs have now been set up. These have included
Global
Village of Beijing and Green Home which were set up around
1996. Together with Friends of Nature, they have become China's
three main pioneering environmental NGOs. According to news
released by the Sino-US environmental NGOs forum in November of
2001, there were by then over 2,000 environmental NGOs in China and
millions of participants.
Those involved become volunteers working towards environmental
protection throughout China. They spend their time and money in
reclaiming wasteland, observing birds, planting trees and
protecting endangered animals. They also work to establish green
communities.
When China made its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, leaders of
these three environmental NGOs, including Liang Congjie and Liao
Xiaoyi were appointed as environmental advisers to the Beijing 2008
Olympic Games Bid Committee (BOBICO) . They impressed the
International Olympic Committee members with their advanced ideas
and sound practices in environmental protection.
Difficulties to be faced
The development of China's environmental NGOs has not been without
its difficulties. Constraints in registration procedures continue
to cause frustration to those seeking to get on with the work for
their NGO.
In
2001 on the evening of December 30, a reporter interviewed an
organizer of an environmental NGO who had attending a conference as
a non-voting delegate. She said with some agitation that her
organization had been applying for registration for five years and
still had not been granted approval. She explained, "according to
state regulations, to register as an NGO, we need to find a
sponsoring department willing to be responsible for the work
concerned. However, nobody has been willing to assume this
responsible for us because they are afraid of any problems they may
be taking on."
Her environmental organization had ended up being registered with
the authority for industry and commerce not as an NGO but as an
enterprise. As a result of their status as an enterprise they had
to pay taxes at the end of every year. "Our job is for public
welfare, and our funds are from donations but we find ourselves
paying taxes," she added, "the situation has left me wondering
whether to laugh or cry."
Wang Yongcheng, the founder of Green Home, has similar views
concerning this problem. This large organization with some 30,000
volunteers is still affiliated to a foundation because they got no
reply from the appropriate departments to their requests for
registration.
Limited funding is another difficulty faced by the environmental
NGOs. According to Liao Xiaoyi, who heads up Global Village of
Beijing, it is very difficult for China's environmental NGOs to
raise funds within the country due to anomalies in the tax system.
He said, "Global Village of Beijing has no source of regularly
recurring funds. Its basic revenue depends on fees from producing
TV programs and these cannot be guaranteed indefinitely."
Green Home's limited funds are raised mainly by volunteers. The
same reporter went to Kerqin Grassland with Green Home in 1999.
This is beside Chifeng City in
Inner Mongolia; there they had been planting grass for three
years in order to fix the sands and had clearly made progress.
However the activity had to stop in 2000 due to lack of funds. Now,
the sand dunes are nibbling back into the grasslands and the once
beautiful Buerdun Lake is running dry.
China's environmental NGOs lack influence. Commercial activities
like logging and trapping which run counter to the interests of
environmental protection are well established. Liang Congjie felt
strongly about this when interviewed. Recently FON received a
message from members in Nanjing. They were told a department of
Jiangsu Province had enclosed a site in the Forest of Zijinshan
Mountain in order to extend hotel provision in the eastern suburbs.
There are nearly 60,000 trees within this development area. Many
are long established and over a hundred years old. Liang Congjie
reported this immediately to the authorities but the reply was only
that they were building an hotel on abandoned burial land. They
even said, "no trees will be cut down".
But pictures e-mailed to Liang Congqie by his members in Nanjing
told the real story. Building materials like cement and bricks were
piled high in the dense forest and the site designated for hotel
building had been almost fully enclosed.
"They have no respect for NGOs so they just say anything at all,"
said this member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference with indignation, "However, compared with some who have
no channel available to report malpractice, I am the lucky
one."
Drawing on the experience of the West
"The seven years during which China's environmental NGOs have been
developing has coincided with a time of high levels of activity
among environmental NGOs in the developed countries where
environmental NGOs are more professional and influential," said Zou
Yi, a professor with the Environmental Institute of the Renmin University of
China.
"There they tend to specialize in narrower fields such as the Fund
for Cranes or the International River Organization", explained Yi,
"This sharper focus helps them to do their chosen job more
effectively."
Their expertise is also reflected in their organizational
structures and fields of research. For example, the Earth Defense
Fund (FDF) engages primarily in investigation and research but is
able to extend its interests beyond these activities.
The World Wide Fund for Nature has been called the cradle of
environmental economy. It has its own office building and journals
in addition to research fellows. It attracts large numbers of
specialists including environmentalists, economist and
zoologists.
The influence of NGOs in developed countries is well demonstrated
by their involvement in key government legislation. On August 28,
2001, concerned that National Missile Defense testing on the USA's
west-coast would damage its ecology, eight American environmental
organizations jointly sued the Department of Defense. They demanded
that the Pentagon should re-evaluate the impact of testing.
Similar cases also appeared during negotiations for the Kyoto
Protocol. Some environmental organizations got together to discus
the key issues at the same time as the governments were engaged in
the formal negotiations. The term 'shadow negotiation' was used to
describe their activities. The NGOs delegates reported their views
back to the governments in due course. In an acknowledgement of
their influential role, there were NGO Representatives right
alongside the Government Representatives when the statements were
released.
Despite significant differences, which exist between Western and
Eastern countries in terms of their political and cultural
backgrounds, we can still draw on the experience of the
environmental NGOs in the West. There is a particular lesson to be
learnt from the specialized nature of their operations. According
to Professor Zou Yi, most of China's environmental NGOs are still
partly engaged in set-up activities. This is one of the reasons why
they are not yet exerting their influence.
In partnership with government
At
present, the focus of Chinese environmental NGOs is in three main
areas. They seek to educate and guide the public, to promote public
involvement and to lobby government on issues of environmental
protection policy. They also monitor what is happing in the field
of environmental protection and help enterprises develop a greater
concern for environmental issues.
For a nation with 1.3 billion people, the present numbers of
environmental volunteers and NGOs in China are still far from what
is required. China's environmental NGOs have started their work but
still have a long way to go. Government support will be crucial if
they are to make rapid progress.
(By Wu Chenguang, 南方周末 [South
Weekend], translated by Wang Qian for China.org.cn July 13,
2002)