Many of China's environmental protection non-government organizations (NGOs) are committed to reducing poverty.

 

Up to now, there are still 23.65 million people living below the poverty line in China's vast rural areas.

 

Environment and poverty have an interactive relationship, with poverty often giving rise to the destruction of environment, while environmental degradation can in turn worsen poverty.

 

In recent years, NGOs have gone into villages to help impoverished farmers develop a green economy, in a drive to relieve rural poverty through protecting the environment.

 

In light of the western development strategy initiated by the central government, Shaanxi Mother Environment Volunteer Association has carried out a program of establishing demonstration "Green Homes" for 10,000 rural families in 10 experimental counties.

 

By guiding rural women to develop non-polluting and environmentally friendly agricultural methods, as well as producing renewable biogas energy from the comprehensive usage of straw and human and animal manure, the NGO has helped poor rural families find new ways of reducing poverty based on developing an economy with a focus on the environment.

 

So far 300 demonstration families have been selected in Shaanxi.

 

Yueyang Environment Volunteer Association in Hunan Province has helped farmers convert farmland to forest.

 

By subsidizing farmers 100 yuan (US$12.5) for each mu (a traditional Chinese land area unit equaling 1/15 hectares) of land converted to forest, the "Grain for Green" plan has mobilized scores of local farmers.

 

The Lashihai Lake area of Lijiang, in Yunnan Province, boasts an abundance of biological resources.

 

But due to over-fishing the number of the fish in the lake has sharply decreased. Many local farmers began falling trees to earn a living, which sped up the degradation of the area's environment in the late 1990s.

 

In May 2000, the Green River, an NGO, initiated a water conservation project.

 

Through the joint efforts of the local government, villagers and foreign experts, as well as the NGO, fishing, farming and eco-tourism have seen a balanced development within two years in the lake area.

 

In 2003, the project was honored as one of 150 Best Water Resource Management Projects in the World during the World Water Forum held in Japan.

 

In the northwestern part of Yunnan Province, a world famous area for its bio-diversity, local farmers once used wood for cooking and heating. Every year, the 15 counties in the area consumed a total of 3.6 million cubic meters of wood.

 

But in 2004, a US environmental protection NGO launched a village credit program, with the aim of providing bio-fuel to replace the wood.

 

The plan offers financial and technological support, and encourages local villagers to adopt the use of marsh gas.

 

Its efforts have helped enhance villagers' awareness of the need to protect local bio-diversity.

 

The story is an excerpt of the China Environment NGO Blue Paper, drafted by the All-China Environment Federation. For more information about the blue paper, log on to the federation's website wwww.acef.com.cn.

 

(China Daily September 25, 2006)