Environmental groups forming in China

The number of environmental groups in China has been rising rapidly during the past three years, according to experts in both the United States and China.

There are now 39 registered environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China, says Jennifer Turner, senior project associate for China at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Project, which is funded by the W. Alton Jones Foundation and the U.S. Institute for Peace. She acknowledges that the number seems relatively small, but stresses that not all groups take the trouble to register. Additionally, students’ and women’s groups have begun to take up environmental issues, she says.

Spawned by a 1998 law that allows NGOs to register with the government, the new groups play an important role because local environmental protection bureaus often have no power, Turner says. Prior to the official acceptance of environmental groups, citizen mobs sometimes destroyed polluting factories under cover of dark, she adds.

The official tolerance of the new NGOs is notable because protecting the environment was traditionally the responsibility of the government, which was “not willing to accept open dissent and direct opposition to established projects or policies,” according to a report on the subject by the U.S. Embassy in China.

The magnitude of the environmental problems that the country faces makes “discussion of environmental problems the only choice for China,” says Liu Jianqiang of Tsinghua University’s Center for International Communications Studies in Beijing. Although the country’s federal State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) reports that the situation is improving, numerous studies show that China has some of the world’s worst air pollution, and it faces severe water pollution, desertification, and farmland deterioration.

One of the boldest new environmental NGOs is the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV), Turner says. Headed by legal expert Wang Canfa, the organization’s goal is to help the increasing numbers of citizens harmed by pollution receive adequate compensation for their losses.

One of CLAPV’s current cases is a farmer from Inner Mongolia who claims that emissions from a nearby copper refinery damaged his orchard. Although the China Forestry Science Institute’s investigation found that high levels of sulfur dioxide, arsenic, and lead—the chemicals emitted when the refinery’s desulfurization equipment broke down—killed the trees, a lower court did not rule in the farmer’s favor. So CLAPV is helping the farmer appeal his case.

The Beijing Environment and Development Institute (BEDI) is another noteworthy group, Turner says. In late September, BEDI engineered China’s first SO₂ trade in the city of Nantong, a new center of light manufacturing. The effort, which is part of a collaboration with Environmental Defense, a U.S.-based nonprofit, is part of a pilot project to reduce emissions from coal-burning boilers and power plants in two very different cities: Nantong and Benxi, an old-style center of heavy industry. The project has the influential backing of Ma Zhong, who heads the School of Environment and Natural Resources at Remin University of China.

Groups like BEDI and CLAPV have achieved official status by working within some burdensome limitations, Turner says. Each of China’s environmental NGOs is required to be sponsored by a government agency, she explains, noting that the Chinese term for that government watchdog is “mother-in-law”. Only one group is allowed in each subject matter and jurisdiction, limits that are in place because China wants to funnel foreign investments into its government-organized NGOs (GONGOs) and SEPA’s research centers, she says.

One of the motivations for these groups to register with the government is to avoid “being hassled by officials who might not like [their] work,” Turner says. Registered groups are also allowed to maintain official bank accounts, says Dan Dudek, an atmospheric policy specialist with Environmental Defense, who is involved in the BEDI SO₂ trading project.

Unlike BEDI and CLAPV, most of the newly formed environmental NGOs are not tackling politically sensitive issues like factory pollution, hazardous waste, or dam building, Turner cautions. Instead, she says, they tend to focus on “soft” issues like environmental education, recycling, nature awareness, and conservation. But both Dudek and Turner express confidence that the ranks of environmental NGOs will continue to grow and that these groups will eventually prove willing to stand up for more difficult issues. —KELLYN S. BETTS