China- Environment: First Ever NGO Challenges Traditions
3/18/97
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Headline: China- Environment: First Ever NGO Challenges Traditions
Source: Aviva Imhof
Mekong Programs Coordinator
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703, USA
Tel: + 1 510 848 1155 Fax: + 1 510 848 1008
Web: www.irn.org
Date: 3/18/96
Author: Amy Woo
igc:newsdesk in ax:ips.english
Copyright 1997 InterPress Service
Title: CHINA-ENVIRONMENT: First-Ever NGO Challenges Traditions
By Amy Woo
BEIJING, Mar 18 (IPS) - The Beijing zoo these days boasts new
signs describing the animals. Gone are the signs that tell people
whether the animal could be eaten. In their place are slogans
calling for the protection of the species.
The turnaround is significant considering China's reputation for
''cooking everything that flies and crawls'', says Friends of
Nature, the country's first legal environmental NGO which is in
the forefront of the campaign.
''We are not career environmentalists or watchdogs, we are just a
loose gathering of ordinary people trying to raise public
awareness,'' says Professor Liang Congjie, president of Friends of
Nature.
The efforts of this pioneering group of no more than 400 people
have already produced results. The non-government organisation
spearheaded the campaign to save the last golden
monkeys from the remote forests of Yunnan province.
It started four years ago with reports that the jungle habitat of
the golden monkeys, a species unique to China but already driven
to the verge of extinction, was being threatened by commercial
logging.
Friends of Nature took the case to the public through newspapers
and television, drawing support from several student ''green
clubs'' in Chinese universities. The goal to save China's
endangered species inspired and united 30 students, journalists
and ecologists to set on a 'Long March' to the monkeys' primeval
habitat.
The campaign was crowned with a government preservation order
which blocked a local logging project. Beijing subsequently
offered to pay local authorities 15 million yuan (1.8 million
dollars) a year, if they halt logging in the area.
But the initial success was short-lived. And the 'money-for-
preservation' worked against the very concept of preserving the
forest. On the contrary, the offer of money became a golden
opportunity for other counties in the area to squeeze money from
central authorities.
Professor Liang says adjoining counties are now threatening to
start cutting down trees unless they are given money. ''Chinese
entrepreneurs only care about themselves, not the environment,''
he said. ''We can't let people use these monkeys as hostages.''
His crusade for raising public awareness on environmental
protection is a whiff of fresh air in a country with no tradition
of NGOs. But it comes as no surprise as Liang comes from a family
of progressive thinkers and his belief in education seems to carry
something of his forebears' enlightening spirit.
His father, renowned architect Liang Sicheng, in early 1950s
campaigned for the preservation of Beijing city walls, while his
grandfather, Liang Qichao, was a bold reformer in the late 19th
century.
Professor Liang Congjie prefers the gradual to the radical
approach to environmental protection. ''We would rather be
involved in educating the public,'' he says while outlining the
goals of Friends of Nature.
Quite expectedly, instead of enlightening the public, some of the
NGO's campaigns sparked heated debates in the capital. One case
was the initiative last year to persuade Beijingers to free their
caged songbirds.
The campaign challenged a 1,000-year-old tradition of collecting
songbirds and displaying them. Friends of Nature argued that each
year about 50,000 birds are bought, but one million other birds
are killed in the process of capturing them for sale.
''The female birds are killed because they can't sing,'' reveals
Professor Liang. Friends of Nature failed to persuade many
collectors that ending this deeply-rooted custom would be a real
sign of love towards the rare birds.
Beijingers asserted that their imprisoned songbirds enjoyed even
more delicious and expensive food than the owners themselves.
''Don't we love the birds?'' asked one collector.
But the group has pledged to strengthen their efforts during
'Bird Lovers Week' next month.
Whatever the outcome of this particular campaign, Friends of
Nature has already achieved a significant feat -- giving birth to
some kind of green movement in China.
While Liang's group is still the sole legal environmental NGO in
the country, the number of unauthorized but tacitly tolerated
'green clubs' is growing.
Some of the most active environmentalists gather yearly for a
campaign called Green Camp. This year the participants, mainly
university students, will work towards the wildlife conservation
in southeast Tibet, while the focus next year will be the
protection of wetlands in coastal areas.
The range of environmental problems tackled by mushrooming green
groups is expanding to cover the challenges faced by a country
experiencing an economic boom. The management of scarce water
resources and pollution control are also sights.
''It's easy to degrade the environment and difficult to protect
it'', observes Professor Liang. But ''without popular
participation, the government can't carry out the job of
environmental protection effectively."