(GVB), established in 1996 by environmental activist Liao Xiaoyi. Like a few
other Beijing-based ENGOs, GVB is registered as an enterprise under the
Department of Commerce and Industry. It has an active environmental
education program and emphasizes women’s role in environmental change. In
its brief history it has hosted a weekly television show on Central Chinese
Television, sponsored China’s first recycling program, and piloted programs in
‘green lifestyles’, including a back-to-nature training base near Beijing.^50 A
different type of Beijing-based NGO is the Center for Legal Assistance to
Pollution Victims. Environmental law professor Wang Canfa established this
ENGO, which is affiliated with the Beijing University of Politics and Law. It
has a number of lawyers who take on cases of pollution victims, with more
than a 50 percent success rate.
A fourth example of an indigenous ENGO is the Desert Control Volunteers
Network. This is a relatively new organization, operating out of Beijing. Its
chief purpose is to change popular attitudes about the desert and control of
desertification, while communicating information in China’s cities about
special land forms, plants, and animals found in desert terrain. Most of its
dozen members are Beijing-area university students or young professionals.
They work with grassroots organizations in areas adjoining deserts, provide
training for them in capacity building, and then share these experiences with
urban residents. Altogether about 60 volunteers work on programs, and they
maintain contact through the Internet. The organization’s work on
sustainability is guided by traditional Taoist thought as well as by Gandhian
precepts.^51 The Desert Control Volunteers are not registered, because the
‘complicated process’ in China ‘doesn’t have much to do with the kind of an
association we are’.
A final example is the Global Environmental Institute (GEI), registered in
- This organization crosses the ENGO-INGO border, as it has an
affiliation with the World Watch Institute, and international members sit on its
Board of Directors. It has several areas of focus: biodiversity conservation in
hotspots, energy efficiency advocacy (including renewables), and rural
finance. The GEI often partners with institutes in the CAS.^52
Student environmental associations
The third type of environmental association is composed of student groups at
university campuses throughout China. Most colleges and universities with
environmental education programs (about 130 in 2005)^53 also have student
organizations focusing on the environment and development or sustainable
development. These groups are free-forming, lack paid staff, and develop
activities based on students’ interests.^54
The best-known student environmental organization is the Green Camp
Volunteers, which formed in 1996. The ‘spiritual leader’ of Green Camp
ENGOs, civil society and biodiversity conservation 177