NGOs Get Active

By staff reporter JIAO FENG

FON members trekking in Erguna, Inner Mongolia. As well as their main mission of inspecting natural and geological conditions, they also bring books and other daily goods to people in poverty.

COMPARED with their counterparts in Western countries, China’s environmental NGOs are still in their relative infancy, but they are growing up fast, as is public awareness of environmental protection.

Established in 1978, China’s first environmental organization – Chinese Society for Environment Sciences – played an active role in environmental science exchange and research. Self-organized NGOs appeared ten or so years later, for example the Saunders’ Gull Conservation Society of Panjin City and Friends of Nature (FON). Initially, they engaged mainly in bird watching, planting trees, picking up trash and activities relating to environmental education and consciousness raising. As their numbers grew, so the scope of these organizations gradually expanded and they became an important force in the national environment effort. As of today, there are over 3,500 environmental NGOs in China, involving about 300,000 participants, and using their activities to influence government policy.

Friends of Nature

On June 5, 1993, World Environment Day, a heated discussion was taking place near a disused pagoda in a Beijing suburb. A group of socially concerned scholars, teachers, artists, students and retired workers sat on the grass, discussing the situation of China’s environment and what responsibility ordinary people should take. The discussion was informal and untitled but it bore fruit the following year with the creation of the “Academy for Green Culture,” an affiliate to the Academy for Chinese Culture. With the objective of protecting nature, it also called itself “Friends of Nature.” Perhaps at the time, they didn’t realize that their discussion and the subsequent organization signaled a dawning awareness of environmental protection and willingness to take action.

Friends of Nature were soon followed by Global Village of Beijing and Green Earth Volunteers. Since semi-governmental organizations and charities like China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation had no specific organs for environmental protection, these new groups very soon filled the gap. “We made our voice heard for the first time in 1995 when calling for protection of the Tibetan antelope,” recalls Zhang Hehe, head of the Development and Cooperation Department of FON.

The Tibetan antelope is a rare species living in Tibet and Qinghai Province. Because of the high value of their wool, illegal trade in their cashmere has expanded since the 1980s leading to a concomitant increase in poaching and killing on a large scale. In 1995, FON began supporting and organizing its members to go to Hoh Xil, the main habitat of Tibetan antelopes, to monitor and take part in the construction of reserve stations. The photos, videos and other first-hand information provided by FON brought the endangered existence of these magical plateau animals to the attention of the general public. The sight of their skinned corpses, callously dumped on the grassland by poachers, inspired shock and outrage. Liang Congjie, initiator and president of FON, wrote a letter to Tony Blair, the then British prime minister, calling for a ban on the trade of Tibetan antelope cashmere, Europe being the major market. Blair replied expressing his support.

Working for Greater Awareness

The Yangtze flooding of 1998 had a salutary effect in underlining the importance of environmental protection, and the increased public awareness made people more receptive to and welcoming of such groups. This in turn led to higher demands on the NGOs. They write books, distribute leaflets, hold lectures, issue media information and launched various projects to promote green concepts.

In 1999 the Green Volunteer Union of Chongqing organized a walk of volunteers along the Jialing River. The aim of the 45-day, 1,170-km walk was to publicize environmental concepts and organize related activities. In the same year, Global Village of Beijing, in cooperation with the Beijing municipal government, launched Green Community, a grassroots trial project. The Student Green University of Tsinghua University united with 30 other colleges to send e-cards rather than paper greeting cards. In 2000 FON launched “Tibetan Antelope Bus,” the first vehicle to take the environmental protection message across the country, reaching 400 schools and 50,000 teachers and students.

The first time environmental organizations came to general public attention was in September 2004. A plan was underway to install an isolating membrane at the bottom of the lakes in the Yuanmingyuan Garden (the old Summer Palace) in order to prevent water seeping away. However, some environmentalists pointed out that the membrane proposed would be harmful to the environment. Later FON, Global Village of Beijing and Beijing Earthview Environment Education and Research Center spoke against the project at the hearing held by the State Environmental Protection Administration. They even launched a symposium discussing how to rectify the project and to protect the garden’s eco-system. The rectified plan was adopted and completed in September 2005. In early 2006, the State Environmental Protection Administration published Regulations for Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment. Someone commented that the environmental organizations had protected the garden, and the garden had returned the favor.

Volunteer Inspectors

After 2005, the green movement acquired “hurricane momentum.” The State Environmental Protection Administration was at last raised in status as the Ministry of Environmental Protection; the single-vote veto mechanism was established, as were many protection policies. The NGOs also became a highly visible presence, ready to argue their case in battles against interest groups. The Green Volunteer Union of Chongqing has influenced government decisions in 15 cases, nine of them relating to improper actions of local governments or companies. In one case, the organization helped transform environmentally destructive farming methods using agro-chemicals.

In 2009 Zhao Zhong, head of Green Camel Bell, asked for volunteers to look out for factories in Gansu Province discharging rubbish and toxic materials into the Yellow River, and published the names of the guilty parties on its China Water Pollution Map. One was a joint venture under Carlsberg that had been discharging untreated sewage, jeopardizing the environment and the safety of a nearby water source. After a year’s intense communication with Carlsberg, Zhao persuaded the factory to install a sewage treatment system that would be subject to inspection by the NGO. For his environmental contribution, Zhao was listed a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine in 2009.

In 2010, 34 NGOs including FON and Institute of Public & Environment Affairs investigated heavy metal pollution generated by the IT industry, and suppliers of certain famous IT companies were found to be exceeding the discharge standard. The NGOs wrote to the CEOs of over 20 companies to check these infringements. Many companies, for example Haier, Lenovo, Intel, SingTel, Panasonic and Sanyo, responded promptly and made improvements.

Input into Government Policy

The progress of a society rests in no small part on communication between government and public and on real public participation in decision-making. As Chinese democracy presses forward, the NGOs are playing an ever more significant role as a non-government, non-business third party.

In the summer of 2004, keeping the air-con to no lower than 26 degrees became a slogan in many office buildings. Initiated by six NGOs including FON and Global Village of Beijing, for the first three months the initiative was adopted in only 10 companies and two embassies. However, it was supported by 51 NGOs across China in its second year, and by governments of all levels in its third. In June 2007, the General Office of the State Council published Notice on Strictly Implementing the Air Conditioner Temperature Control Standard in Public Buildings. “This shows our reason for being,” says Zhang Hehe. “We can experiment first and bear all the cost and risk ourselves. If it’s successful you (the government) can take it away and apply it on a wider scale.”

She told China Today that in recent years FON had been promoting low-carbon travel in Beijing, and had made a detailed assessment of the Beijing transportation plan, road infrastructure and bike-friendly travel. The annual assessment report provides reference data for Beijing’s future urban planning, especially in transportation construction.