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. 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. On June 5, 1993, World Environment Day, a heated discussion was taking place near a disused pagoda in a Beijing suburb. 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. As their numbers grew, so the scope of these organizations gradually expanded and they became an important force in the national environment effort. Initially, they engaged mainly in bird watching, planting trees, picking up trash and activities relating to environmental education and consciousness raising. Self-organized NGOs appeared ten or so years later, for example the Saunders’ Gull Conservation Society of Panjin City and Friends of Nature (FON). As well as their main mission of inspecting natural and geological conditions, they also bring books and other daily goods to people in poverty.ĬOMPARED 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.Įstablished in 1978, China’s first environmental organization – Chinese Society for Environment Sciences – played an active role in environmental science exchange and research.
FON members trekking in Erguna, Inner Mongolia.
0 kommentar(er)
