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)