The State Environment Protection Administration made an announcement recently in Beijing appealing for China's environmental non-government organizations (NGOs) to collaborate with the government on pressing environmental issues, in a bid to pave the way for a third sector to influence policy-making.

The development of environmental NGOs has remained largely stagnant because there have been few opportunities for them to consult with the government.

But according to SEPA's vice-minister Zhu Guangyao, this is no longer the case seeing as how environmental protection has been pushed to one of the top spots on the government agenda.

Only time will tell if the relationship between environmental NGOs and the government will prove more productive, but in the meantime, a few NGO representatives have found a possible alternate means of communicating their messages and enabling change.

Several NGO leaders outside the environmental area have also asked to be considered as candidates in the local assembly, with elections for local People's Congresses currently underway.

It has been argued that a conflict of interest could arise if NGO leaders start running for government positions but Zhu said this should not be an issue as long as the candidates stay true to their cause of protecting the environment.

If elected, they will have an effective platform to push for environmental reform and other initiatives thereby influencing policy making in the long run, and their roles will be increasingly important if there continues to be limited communication channels with the government.

Zhu added that it is in the national interest to have representatives in the local government who are passionate about environmental protection, especially as the central government sees environmental protection as a leading undertaking towards modernization.

In the future, environmental NGO leaders should follow in the footsteps of their constituents in other areas by running for local government, thus ensuring that this growing sector has a voice.

At a conference on The Sustainable Growth of China's Environmental NGOs, Zhu encouraged China's 2,768 environmental NGOs to rally the public to participate in environmental protection.

To this end, a new online directory (www.greengo.cn) was launched in early October, with a list of 100 of China's environmental NGOs and their profiles.

The directory, created by China Development Brief, will give environmental NGOs more exposure by sparking further interest in the community about the roles and aims of green NGOs, helping the sector grow by attracting new members and possibly motivating others to start their own NGOs.

But if the government genuinely wants greater numbers of environmental NGOs to be able to deal with the endless environmental catastrophes that are barring its way along the path towards sustainable development, it must relax its registration process. The process is complex, expensive, time consuming and offers no guarantee of success.

Zhu also encouraged further cooperation with international NGOs as a means of quelling domestic skepticism of the motives of foreign NGOs, who several senior government officials claim are susceptible to corruption, threaten national security and could unhinge the nation's political stability.

As long as foreign NGOs in China maintain transparency, accountability and high levels of efficiency in all of their activities, while continuing to make significant contributions towards China's development, their detractors will hopefully be silenced through definitive results.

(China Daily November 6, 2006)