Environmental NGOs make progress in China

The one-party political system in the People's Republic of China may have hampered the exercise of free speech, but there is one area where civil society can enjoy relative freedom to articulate their grievances: Environmental protection.

In the face of massive industrialization, scores of environmental non-governmental organizations (NGO)s have played an effective role in putting the enormous plunder of Mother Nature in check.

Among the most celebrated instances is a campaign by an environmental journalist from state-run newspaper People's Daily, Zhao Yongxin.

Thanks to Zhao's story titled Is it Destruction or Protection? Yuanmingyuan Park is laying a Waterproof Membrane at the Bottom of a Lake published in People's Daily on March 28, the Chinese authorities decided to call off a project that would have cost the environment dearly.

Under tremendous public pressure, the State Environmental Protection Administration of China (SEPA) began to investigate the case and later decided the project infringed the prevailing environmental law.

After a public hearing, the management of Yuanmingyuan Park removed part of the membrane and used clay as the primary material.

Nu river dam project

Another shining example of how civil society could exert its influence on government policies is the success of green NGOs in helping to halt the construction of the monstrous Nu river dam, in southwest China.

Spearheaded by environmental NGO Friends of Nature, dozens of other like-minded NGOs and close to 100 concerned experts signed initially a petition for the disclosure of the environmental impact assessment of the project for public scrutiny.

The NGOs were concerned that construction of the Nu river dam would involve the resettlement of 50,000 people, mostly from minority groups.

However, the gravest concern was that a cascade of 13 hydroelectric dams that wended its way through three mighty rivers, the Yangtze, Mekong and Nu, would pose a threat to the rich biodiversity of the regions.

After heated debate on the project's likely environmental and social impact, Premier Wen Jiabao ordered the termination of the project in April 2004.

Despite the success story, Friends of Nature president Liang Congjie said that environmental NGOs still had a long way to go.

"We have done out best to influence the government, but it is the government that has the final say," Liang said.

-- M. Taufiqurrahman