is Tang Hsiyang, a former editor and author of Green World Tour. In 1996,
Tang organized a college student camp in the Shangralila area of Deqing
County in the Yunnan Province, to focus attention on the golden monkey
whose habitat was threatened by rapid deforestation. Students wrote
reports on what they observed and submitted them to provincial officials. In
succeeding years, students traveled to different locales, such as Xinjiang,
Hainan Island, Tibet, and Gansu. There are four products of their tours: 1)
students’ papers expressing their feelings about local and regional develop-
ments; 2) photo collections which they exhibit to campuses; 3) a video of
the trip, also for exhibition; and 4) public presentations to college students.
Green Camp organizations are also found in Xian, Fuzhou, Canton, and
Shanghai.^55
The Beijing area has had a city-wide student environmental association in
the last three years. Student environmentalists are interested in spreading
grassroots organizations and forming a national student environmental
organization. Although it is far easier for students to establish clubs and
voluntary associations at universities, the regime’s reaction to a national
student association is uncertain.
Local grassroots ENGOs
Environmental groups at the grassroots level, in cities, towns, and villages, are
the fourth type of ENGO in China. No census has been done of local
grassroots ENGOs, but they probably number in the thousands.^56 Few have a
permanent, paid staff, and they are unlikely to have an office. These
associations typically form to oppose environmentally degrading practices of
businesses or governments. Thus they express ‘NIMBYism’, opposition to
ecological disturbances happening in one’s own back yard.
One example of a grassroots organization is the Upper Yangtze Organiza-
tion (UYO), established in Zhiduo County, a western county of Yushu Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province in 1998.^57 The UYO was founded
by a group of Tibetan herders, some of whom had participated in the Wild Yak
Brigade, a quasi-official anti-poaching patrol. Three objectives describe the
range in activities of UYO. First, in collaboration with the township
government, it has formulated a multiple-use land management plan, to
establish local nature reserves for the protection of snow leopards, Tibetan
antelopes, Tibetan wild asses, black-necked cranes, and wild yaks. Second,
and also in concert with the township government, it created an ecological
protection committee to monitor wildlife populations and use. Third, the group
has promoted basic education, including the establishment of a primary
school, including ecology courses. The UYO has partnered with and received
financial assistance from a number of external agencies, including Canada’s
Plateau Perspectives, Global Greengrants Fund, and Fauna and Flora
178 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan