International. In 2002, Founder and Director Drashi Dorje received an Earth
Award from the SFA.
Recently, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund^58 , an affiliate of
Conservation International (CI), conducted a survey of 24 grassroots NGOs in
Southwest China, focusing on the difficulties they encountered in their
programs and planning.^59 About three-fifths of the NGOs surveyed had never
received training in financial management and decision making. Most (54
percent) were not registered with the government, and 37 percent lacked
offices and did not issue annual financial reports. Operating budgets were
small: 30 percent had budgets of less than US$1200; some 30 percent
had budgets between US$1200 and US$6000; only 15 percent had annual
budgets greater than US$12000.^60 Organizational objectives included
education and raising awareness for environmental protection (63 percent) and
water pollution prevention (54 percent) among others. Nearly three-fourths
(70 percent) had worked with other local NGOs, schools, and local
governments. A number of INGOs have begun to focus on capacity building
of grassroots ENGOs, as we note briefly below.
International NGOs
The final level of NGOs is composed of environmental organizations with
headquarters in North America or Europe, which focus on environmental
problems in China of global significance. These organizations are the richest
ENGOs operating in China, with offices and full-time paid staff members.
They operate in the silence of the law until China develops regulations for the
registration of foreign NGOs (planned for 2006); yet, when developing
projects, the International NGOs (INGOs) typically reach memoranda of
agreement with central government agencies, such as SEPA and SFA, or with
provincial governments.
The leading example (in 2005) of an INGO is The Nature Conservancy
(TNC), which entered China only in 1998, but has now developed 15 project
areas in the northwest Yunnan Province, one of the most biologically diverse
temperate ecosystems on the planet. The goals of the TNC’s Yunnan Great
Rivers Project are: 1) to establish a system of nature reserves in the region
characterized by their effective management and enforcement and participa-
tion of the local population in reserve objectives; 2) to initiate enterprises that
generate economic benefits for local communities while protecting natural and
cultural resources; and 3) to develop effective policies and build capacity
among governments, communities and NGOs for sustainable conservation and
economic development.^61 Some 35–40 TNC program staff work with
provincial government officials and with a host of grassroots NGOs, including
women’s groups, cultural associations, indigenous knowledge centers, and
newly formed village economic enterprises; another 15 associates staff the
ENGOs, civil society and biodiversity conservation 179