Published by Global Village of Beijing

Voices of Grassroots is a monthly newsletter, which voices the opinions and activities of Chinese environmental NGOs. It is designed as an information platform to promote the participation of Chinese grassroots organizations in China's sustainable development. (detail)

We all know that communities are the foundation of our civil society, rural and urban communities. There is no doubt that NGOs will have a great deal of contribution at the community level.

Communities are also the carriers of public environmental protection. Some people have carried out research which shows that more than 70% of the matters commanly dealt with by communities are related to the environment. The establishment of Green communities gives the residents an opportunity to participate in environment related activities and also builds up a participatory mechanism and capacity. It also teaches the residents to be aware of the quality of the environment, to monitor that environmental regulations are being upheld, to participate in public decision making, to choose a green life and so forth. Communities will surely become places where people’s voices are made heard.

Introduction to Voices of Grassroots (Back To Top)

Voices of Grassroots is a monthly newsletter, which voices the opinions and activities of Chinese environmental NGOs. It is designed as an information platform to promote the participation of Chinese grassroots organizations in China's sustainable development.

Voices of Grassroots aims to strengthen collaboration between grassroots organizations, governments, and the business sector by updating environmental activities, policies and laws, and public ideas. Additionally, it seeks to assist NGOs in their capacity building efforts by sharing the experiences of relevant organizations and experts. Finally, it endeavors to expand the influence of NGOs nationwide through dissemination on a broad scale.

Voices of Grassroots is published by Global Village of Beijing, with current funding support from the Canadian Civil Society Programme. In each publication, an extensive amount of content comes directly from people who are either working with or are otherwise associated with Chinese environmental NGOs. With an editing panel that consists of leaders and researchers from governments, the business sector, and NGOs, Voices of Grassroots is positioned to be an effective platform through which the voices of grassroots organizations can be heard.

NGO Express (Back To Top)

Closing ceremony of the First Beijing Universities’ Environmental Week

On November 6th, the one-week University Environmental Week came to its end with the wonderful final environmental debate.

Supported by the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association of SEPA, 12 universities participated in the event.

At the final debate, students from the Central University for Nationalities and Beijing Technology and Business University argued fiercely over “whether it is the physical materials or environmental awareness is more important in environmental protection”. Eventually, the Central University for Nationalities won the final campaign.

Since the formation of the Environmental Week Committee in July, various activities have been held on campus such as environmental debates, environmental photography, lectures from environmentalists and so forth. Students claim that they will continue making efforts on environmental protection.

--Beijing Universities’ Environmental Week

Meeting of the 9th Green Camp of University Students of China

On 21st, November, the 9th Green Camp of University Students of China gave their report and at the same time, celebrated the new publication of the founder of the camp—Mr. Tang Xiyang’s book “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!” After Mr. Tang’s previous book “A Green World Tour”, this new book will be another important landmark in the history of China’s environmental publications.

--The Green Camp of University Students of China

500 people gathered to watch “Kekexili” and donated money towards the “Wild Yak Team”

On 30th October, 500 members of Friends of Nature gathered in Xiaoxitian Theater and watched the movie “Kekexili”.

The movie Kekexili is based on the true stories of the former “Wild Yak Team”. It presents the fight between the members of the Wild Yak Team and the Tibetan Antelope poachers in the area of Kekexili in Qinghai Province.

After the movie, the assistant director and an actress from the movie were invited to give a talk about their experiences during the shooting. Mr. Liang, the president of Friends of Nature later talked about the long friendship FON had had with the Wild Yak Team. When he mentioned his personal friendship with the previous team head, who died some years ago in a mysterious murder, he couldn’t help crying. 7 members of the Wild Yak Team were invited to the venue and introduced themselves. They were the typical Tibetans: did not speak much mandarin; shy and honest. They came to Beijing because they have nothing to do after the Wild Yak Team was dismissed a few years ago and now they want to form their new team and keep working on animal protection and environmental conservation. After knowing that they came to Beijing at their own expense and are currently unemployed, people decided to donate money for their travel costs. Mr. Lu Tongjing, an independent environmental photographer who shoots the desertification situation in western Mongolia, donated the money from his book sales to the brave Tibetans. By the end, people had donated a total of 7700 RMB and the money was handed to the Wild Yak Team in front of the people.

“Protected areas in our eyes” photo exhibit

Friends of Nature gathered pictures of protected areas including nature reserves and national parks in China and held this photo exhibit in the Museum of Nature from November 13th to 21st.

Protected areas are defined by the World Conservation Union as: land and ocean areas that are protected by law to conserve its rich natural and cultural resources and biodiversity. Since the set-up of the first protected area in Guangdong, China now has more than 3,500 protected areas, which occupy 16% of the whole nation. Currently, China’s protected areas cover most of the ecosystems, species, natural and cultural sights and have a comparatively important role internationally.

However, many protected areas are now developing hydropower plants, tourism and mining industries to cope with their financial difficulties (national reserves in China are not financially supported by the central government). This damages the nature and forces us to pay high environmental and social costs. The difficulties these protected areas are facing today somehow reflect deeper contradictions in China’s economic development.

--Friends of Nature

Green Hanjiang observes Longping village’s eco-vegetable planting

From October 29th to 31st, Green Hanjiang organized a trip to Longping Village in Baokang County, Hubei Province. This trip was to observe Longping’s ecosystem protection and their new practice of eco-vegetables planting.

Longping has built up a vegetable base and this vegetable base has brought big benefits to the people. At the same time, people at Longping protect their environment and take good care of their forests.

--Green Hanjiang

On November 15th, more than 80 contracted hotels received “energy conservation cards” from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Committee. The cards were designed and produced by Global Village of Beijing as a follow up to the 26 Degree Campaign held last summer. Aimed at saving energy, the cards give tips on how to save electricity in the rooms and how much and energy will be saved by these little tips. These cards will be placed in the rooms of the 83 hotels to remind their guests to save energy and protect the environment.

Officer Wang Wei of the Olympic Committee addressed that hotels as “important windows” to show the concept of Green Olympics and said that he hopes that the hotels will act actively and build up a green image.

Sustainable Energy Journalist Club joins the “International Mayors Forum on Sustainable Urban Energy Development

On the 10th of November, the Journalist Club participated in the International Mayors Forum on Sustainable Urban Energy Development as the 12th meeting of the Energy Journalist Club Program. The forum was held by the Ministry of Construction and the China Academy of Engineering, and was supported by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Mayors from China and other countries joined the forum and gave speeches on their future city planning and construction (please read WSSD Follow Up for further information on this forum). Journalists who listened to their speeches found them interesting and inspiring. Many of them wrote wonderful reports concerning the forum and China’s city development.

“Green Train Project” starts running between Beijing and Kunming

Initiated by Global Village of Beijing and sponsored by CEPF—Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, the Green Train Program has received permission from the environmental department of the Olympic Committee, the environmental office of the Railway ministry and concerned offices of Kunming Railway Bureau, and has started to run.

Coordinated by CBIK—Center for Biodiversity and Indigenous Knowledge, TNC—The Nature Conservancy, WWF, CDS—Center for Community Development Studies, YEN—Yunnan Eco Network, Green River, Wild China and other NGOs and nature reserves, many environmentalists have given feedbacks to the Green Train Program and provided their stories and other materials. So far, YEN has already finished 8 trainings on the T61/62 trains and received positive feedbacks from the train conductors as well as the passengers.

--Global Village of Beijing

Organized in cooperation with the Xinjiang Conservation Fund, a lecture was given on the issue of protecting the breeding area of the Tibetan Antelopes on 2nd November, by Dr. Kang Aili from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society).

In Minfen County, Hetian (Khotan) Prefecture, in a remote area west of Kunlun Mountain, researchers discovered only recently a breeding ground of the highly endangered Tibetan Antelope (Chiru). In his book “The Big Open, Rick Ridgeway”, a member of this research team wrote about the discovery of this area. The breeding ground that covers an area of 1320 km2 is uninhabited, but recently a private mine has been disturbing the tranquility. A road built by the owners has become a threat as it makes it easier for poachers to get to the breedingground.

In 2003, the WCS China program initiated a campaign to protect the Chiru breeding ground. Since May 2004, Hetian(Khotan) Prefecture is receiving financial support from the Patagonia Company (USA) for a protection project, and with support of WCS, a patrol team was established. The team guarded the area until late August this year and will return in May 2005.

Straw Bale Construction in China

As China's rural areas develop, there is a desperate need for upgraded buildings:schools, clinics, and housing. The production of bricks for construction is using up arable land at an alarming rate and brick buildings require large annual energy inputs for heating. Introduced to China in 1998, straw bale construction utilizes waste baled straw for insulation yielding an energy-efficient, easy to construct alternative. A joint project between the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, China (ADRA/China), local governments and the Chinese Center for Sustainable Technology Transfer(CESTT) has built 606 straw bale houses and three schools in northeastern China. In CESTT's 2002 monitoring study, they discovered that straw bale homes used 50-60% less heating energy than comparable brick homes, reducing CO2 emissions and improving the standard of living for their occupants. On 30th, November, Kelly Lerner gave a lecture, talking about the project and said that she considered there to be afuture for straw bale construction in rural China.

--Green Web

Warning and Pollution (Back To Top)

NGO Corner (Back To Top)

A letter from Ge Yun

From the editor: These short paragraphs are part of an email from Ge Yun to Wen Bo, discussing ecological issues in China’s security agenda. A few days ago, I was invited to a meeting held by CANGO, which was a preparation meeting for a regional NGO conference on international security issues being held next year. The reason why I was sitting there was because nowadays environmental issues are considered an important cause of domestic and even international conflicts and a potential cause of war. Environmental issues are now drawing more and more attention internationally not only because of the environmental problems we are facing but also because of additional relevant problems that they bring about.

Very often we are aware that the voice of the civil society in China is so weak and in may cases, it does not play a significant role. Since the mid 1990’s, Chinese grassroots NGOs have been very active in the field of environmental protection. But why is it so hard for them to make substantial progress in postponing or even preventing the government’s giant plans of dam constructions, such as the one at Nu River and Jinsha River, which have been proved to bring about irreversible negative impacts to the local environment, bio- and cultural diversity and so on?

Apart from all other reasons, I try to explain the Chinese government’s behavior from the perspective of security agenda. While OECD countries are expanding their security agenda from traditional military domain to a much wider agenda, China’s security policy has been almost exclusively focused in the politico-military dimension(??). It is argued in the Western academic circle, that critical security concerns are emerging in four broad bases. One of these remains politico-military, the other three are in new and from a security perspective unfamiliar dimensions, but no less dangerous for that. They include global hierarchical tensions, ecological degradation and domestic social instability. The four dimensions in the security agenda are not equally prioritized by the Chinese government. Ecological degradation and ecological issues are considered the least important by the Chinese government, that is unless it threatens the legitimacy of the communist government, such as the break-out of SARS.

Technological revolutions multiply humanity’s ability to control and exploit the natural environment. Increased technological power expands each human’s exploitation, consumption and pollution further still, multiplying the impact on the environment. For this reason, currently each human in the Postmodern Community (mainly referring to OECD countries) consumes a total of some 230,000 Kcal per day and requires 6.5 hectares of world land and water area for sustenance. A human in the emerging economies consumes half as much and requires on third the land area. China belongs to the emerging economies, but I believe the average Chinese consumption is much less than the aforementioned data. My intention is not to argue that the Chinese should reach the consumption level of Postmodern Community, but that China and the Chinese should not be deprived of the rights of economic growth and improvement of living standards. It is very difficult at the present stage for the Chinese government to provide a double-win alternative, which means them guaranteeing economic growth without exploiting the natural environment. If critics from the Postmodern Community are not able to offer a better solution to China’s bottle-neck, it is better for them to express their opinions more quietly, rather than criticize rampantly from a more or less ideological standpoint.

Policy Watch (Back To Top)

Rights of the resettled people

--they need to know more about the hydropower projects which affect their livies
Interview with Doctor Yu Xiaogang, the director of “Green Watershed”
Reporter in Beijing,Liu Jianqiang

The Manwan hydropower plant is regarded as one of the “five most successful hydro plants” of the Lantsang River. At the end of 2001, Yu Xiaogang, a Ph.D candidate from the Asia Institute of Technology, majoring in Valley Management & Programming, and the researchers from Yunnan University and the Yunnan Academy of Social Science went to the Manwan Hydro Plant to inspect this “successful case”. They carried out internationally up-to-date research: evaluation of the social impact of the reservoir, or in other words, the reservoir’s integrative impacts on the society.

At that time, the Manwan Hydro Plant had been granted the title of best hydropower plant in the national electric power system five times. Besides turning over more than RMB 120,000,000 profit, RMB 100,000,000 taxes were paid to the country, RMB 50,000,000 to the Yunnan Bureau of Finance, and RMB 50,000,000 to Yun, Jingdong, Nanjian and Fengqing Counties. Both the enterprise and the governments achieved “double winning”. Moreover, the employees of the electric plant held stocks in the company, and the annual salary of the manager was as much as RMB 120,000. Moreover, Manwan Hydro Plant has its own four-star hotel,which is the shared wealth of the staff. So, from this point of view, both the leaders and the staff achieved “double winning” too.

However, the researchers found that the 240 residents from Tianba Village, only 800 meters away from the dam, could only make a living by picking up the garbage from the electric plant. Almost ten people were suffering from mental illness since the completion of the dam. The community was breaking down; drug taking, stealing and fighting were all rife.

At that time, the Manwan Hydro Plant was considered the exemplar because of its “lowest investment” and “highest benefit”. Yu Xiaogang said,“However, after our investigation, we found that one of the reasons of the so called “lowest investment” is that the compensation given to the residents resettled by the electric company was the lowest. And one of the reasons of the so called ‘highest benefit’ was that the electric company also gave the least after support to the resettled people.”
In 2002, a piece of internal reference produced by the Xinhua News Agency was sent to the central government leaders. This “People in poverty after the completion of the Manwan Hydro Plant” news was later on given great attention by the central government. The central government then instructed related units in Yunnan Province to investigate the issue, and it was proved true.

Two years later, Yu Xiaogang came back to Manwan again and he was surprised to see that many resettled families were still making a living from picking up garbage. He realized that if the people were not given the chance to participate in the decision making process of big projects that affect their lives, they would be kept in poverty for many more years.

Since this year, “Green Watershed”—a NGO led by Yu Xiaogang, has developed more work in the area of the Three Parallel Rivers. The most important part of their work was a special training held in Lijiang, Yunnan last July. The participants were the resettled people along the Three Parallel Rivers and potential future immigrants of hydropower exploitation. Yu Xiaogang said: “some policies and knowledge should be ‘returned’ to them, they should become the insiders and participants of hydropower development, not only the passive immigrants.”

To “enlighten” the villagers

Reporter: what was the main content in your training?
Yu Xiaogang: There were four main aspects to the training. First of all, we introduced a big

discussion among NGOs, government people, specialists and so forth on the development of big hydro plants in the area of the three parallel rivers, in order to let the villagers know the difficulties and challenges they would be facing, and also to let them know that this is currently the focus of the whole nation.

We also introduced “The Report of the World Commission on Dams”. This report summarized the investigations of many of the world’s dams and found that the dams had a great influence on society and the environment. At present, under the framework of the United Nations, many governments, hydropower enterprises and citizens are in debate over the issue of dam construction and sustainable development.

We also explained China’s resettlement policy to the villagers. China’s resettlement policy has not been carried out thoroughly at the moment. In addition, there are still some blind spots: some people concerned are unable to participate sufficiently and this leads to a series of injustice problems. Secondly, resettlement supervision and evaluation are not executed by a mutual third party but by self-supervision inside the system, thus resulting in corruption, poor quality and irresponsible resettlement. Lastly, during the resettlement, the constitutional spirit of protecting private assets is not being realized. Instead of calling it “supplementary”, it should be called “indemnity”. The immigrants have the right to claim indemnity and get compensation in relation to the market price of their losses.

We also should consider the immaterial effect and damage after the completion of the dam. For instance, someone was forced to move from the roadside to a hill, and there used to be a school near their home and now there is nothing, so the children can’t go to school conveniently. Thus, the convenient social service has been damaged and corresponding compensation, such as building roads and schools should be given by the hydropower companies.

The current situation is that once the villagers move, it will take them ten to twenty years to regain their customary standard of living. Now that the company plans to construct an electricity plant, its benefit must be high, so they should place enough compensation into their cost. They are not supposed to achieve lowest cost and highest profit through exploiting the immigrants.

The rights of immigrants to participate in the decision-making process

Reporter: So, how should the immigrants protect their rights and interests against deprivation?
Yu Xiaogang: The most important thing is to take part in the decision-making. All of the large

scale hydropower projects will lead to some people benefitting and others suffering loss. Therefore, it is important that affected groups are outlined through making a social impact assessment. Stakeholders should participate in the decision-making with complete information and no government pressure. After our training, people began to realize how to appeal, how to avoid negative impacts and how to negotiate with the parties concerned.

The knowledge gained through participating in the social impacts assessment makes them (the people being resettled??) understand the potential impacts before the construction of the hydropower plants. They can thus make demands for running water, electricity, road construction, schools, markets and medical services. In the afternoon of the fourth training day, we visited Shigu Village in the valley of Jinsha River together with the villagers from the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Through the communication between these two villages, both realized the future impacts of the hydropower stations.

Moreover, affected communities should share the interests of hydropower development. They should be the main beneficiaries. Government and developers should negotiate with the people in order to come to a consensus and establish a legal clause of executable redeem on sharing the benefit.

Now, China is walking up to political civilization, requiring the civilians to know and participate in important decision-making. Before, there was no concept of “governance” in China. New development rules demand that all stakeholders achieve equal dialogue; good governance can be obtained through transparency, publicity and democracy. It is a sustainable method and is advocated rigorously by the central government. We believe that local governments will understand it eventually.

The method of protecting civil rights is progressing

Reporter: There was a group appeal in the Manwan area last year. Since your training, has anything changed in the way people try to maintain their rights?

Yu Xiaogang: They wasted a lot of manpower and material resources in the past group appeals and didn’t achieve good solutions. After the training this year, villagers organized themselves to study relevant policies and analyze resettlement problems. Now the villagers are not simply reporting difficulties to the government, but also analyzing the problems, and proposing suggestions to help the government find solutions. For instance, in the Manwan area, some villagers suggested that the resettlement fund should be audited, and others suggested letting the people participate more effectively in resettlement planning.

In the Dachao Mountain area, the villagers realized that there were so many beneficial policies in existence, and that these help set up the legal foundation of the group appeals. In the past, the law was considered a tool to control the people. Today the people realize that laws and policies are the effective tools to protect their rights. This was a great step for them.

Women, Youth and Environment(Back To Top)

Women as the voice of the environment
A green called with the strength of the peace
By Ursula Carrascal Vizarreta – Peru

 Everything in life has a beginning. The flowers at dawn, the sun that is born every morning, the cry of children waking. But, too often the report of weapons destroys morning calm, destroying the natural progression of life.

For years, women from all the over of the world have been fighting to establish peace saving and protect biodiversity. One of them was born where wild life shouts furiously: “We need be saved, stop killing us.” Kenya is her country, Wangari Maathai her name.

The sky is still the limit, were the words of Wangari, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 2004, during the opening ceremony of UNEP Global Women’s Assembly on Environment, held this year from October 11 to 13 in Nairobi, Kenya. With the slogan Women As the Voice of the Environment (WAVE), more than 100 women from 60 countries around the world were united with her searching for solutions to troubles of equity.

Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for environmental issues. From 1970, this environmental leader has been working to promote the importance of the role of the citizen in influencing political decision making in favor of sustainable development. Save all our forest and wet lands for our future is the slogan that the Green Belt Movement, the organization that Wangari has headed, used in one of its campaigns to save Kenya’s forest.

Wangari herself has suffered in her attempts to face the economically and political powers in defense of the environment. She has been confronted by armed watchmen because of her public fight against the inadequate management of forests and she has been imprisoned for defense her principles.   

The participants recognized her devoted work during the event. Klaus Topfer, Executive Director of UNEP, stated that women have an important role in families and a social responsibility. For Topfer, Africa provides an example of how women can be critical in solving troubles, emphasizing Wangari’s activism for the environment.

WAVE, included a number of exceptional women in addition to Wangari.Attendees included Ministers of Environment and representatives of the governments of Sweden, South Africa, Cuba, Demark, Kenya, Iran, Uganda, Swaziland, Italia, among others.They all met and worked closely with representatives of civil society and UN agencies (Habitat, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIFEM).        

Workshops, plenaries, cultural activities, and excursions, were all arranged to provide opportunity to build energy and momentum to build a better world for women. The environmental disaster affects everybody, were the words of Habiba Al Marashi from Dubai. She emphasized that environmental problems affect everyone in the same level, both women as well as men. However, most representatives agreed that women are often more vulnerable and suffer the negatives effects of pollution.

The voices of the women of my region still need to be heard and acknowledge bytheir sisters around the globe, were the words of Murobak Sharipova from Tajikistan, when she spoke about the impact of the war and the plight of women in her country in the last quarter century.

Another important point in the conference was the recognition of the paper of the media in the coverage of the initiatives of women, their problems, and the promotion of their projects. Contact with journalist and the media is a key tool in achieving certain objectives, especially if we talk of educating the community and the authorities, and influencing the business sector. Nobody can deny the influence of media in the conduct of people and the social pressure that it can put on leaders. So included in WAVE were media representatives from both local and international radio, TV and press.

Being a part of WAVE meant much more to me than being a participant of a conference; it was a step forward in my life. Education is important, it provides instruments for development of the community.Sitting beside Afifa Rahiana from Bangladesh and Ruth Mulenga from Zambia, I could contribute a mentorship program proposal that we hope can be realized.

In reality, there are wonderful people in this world. Together, women and men worked together for 3 days discussing ideas for projects, suggestions and the final manifesto that we hope will be accepted not only by our governments, but also civil society and the business sector. As we said in 2001 in the meeting of Ministers of the Environment: Let’s wake up, Time is passing.   

WSSD Follow-up(Back To Top)

Energy efficient transport – a solution for China

Written by: Claudia Nanninga

The ‘International Mayors Forum on Sustainable Urban Energy Development’, held in Kunming November 10-11, 2004, aimed to introduce sustainable transport systems to city leaders and urban planners in China. Among all the speakers one outstanding personality, Enrique Penalosa, the former mayor of Bogota in Columbia, deeply impressed the audience during his hour-long speech. He introduced possibilities to approach the challenge of finding transport solutions from a philosophical rather than a purely economic point of view.

Mr. Penalosa started by stressing that before making any decisions, the essential question that should be posed is “what kind of a city do we want?” Do we want a city for cars or a city for people? According to Mr. Penalosa, a city for people is a city in which children and elderly people can live happily. It is most difficult to create a happy environment for children and the elderly, so that a city that pleases these two groups is definitely a city everyone will be satisfied with. A city for people offers big parks, a lot of green, safe streets and big sidewalks. Here people like walking out in the streets and meeting each other, and children can be outside alone without parents having to worry about their safety. Such a city automatically leads to improved economic competitiveness.

He then pointed out the fact that nowadays most cities are developed to be most suitable for car-drivers as they represent the wealthier part of the population. Additionally, car sales drive the local and national economy. The phenomenon of creating cities for cars is not only happening in China, but can be observed all over the world, lead by the United States. Although supposedly the most industrialized and developed country in the world, the US major cities still face severe traffic problems and air pollution, and public transport is poor in most parts of the country.

So when he became mayor of Bogota, Mr. Penalosa decided to follow his principle of creating quality of life and equality and a city for people. He banned cars from sidewalks, widened sidewalks, introduced several kilometers of bike and pedestrian roads, built parks and sports facilities and improved public transport. To be able to afford all these measures, he didn’t invest in a cost-intensive extension of the subway, but introduced a very comprehensive Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system throughout the city, which in the end saved him more than 90% of the costs he would have spent extending the subway. These efforts have made public transfer so attractive that only 20% of the people are still using their cars. He additionally introduced a car-free day once a year, an initiative, which was widely supported even by car drivers. Last but not least he created big pleasant sidewalks, nurseries and modern schools in poorer areas of Bogota.

There are other examples of sustainable traffic systems. Many countries in Europe already follow the principles of creating cities for people rather than for cars. In the Netherlands, most cities have car-free zones in the city center. No single European city works with elevated roads. In all Northern European countries, traveling to work by bike is made more and more attractive by allowing bikes in the trains and trams and creating bike-roads through the cities. In London, congestion fees and enhanced parking fees have been introduced to make the use of private cars less attractive.

In China it seems that the development is currently directed into producing cities for cars rather than cities for people. In Beijing alone the number of cars is rising by an average of 1,000 per month. The city faces severe traffic problems and air pollution. The government’s goal to achieve 227 pollution-free days in Beijing in the year 2004 hasn’t been met despite several efforts to reduce pollution sources. The growing number of cars and the import of cheap, low-quality fuel are now mainly responsible for the heavy air-pollution during days with inversion weather events.

Is this the kind of city the citizens of Beijing feel happy and relaxed in? It seems not. Every day hours are spent in traffic congestions, it is dangerous to cross the streets and children can’t walk out alone without parents being worried about their safety. Alternatives to private cars are not very attractive. Buses are crowded and stuck in traffic, and bike roads are reduced and frequently used by cars as well.

The car industry is a major driver of economic growth in China and from that point of view it is maybe understandable that the Chinese government chooses to further support the use of private cars. But if the environmental costs caused by the pollution would be included in the GDP, it would soon become obvious that the official economic growth is actually much lower.

China is striving to achieve sustainable development, which should include environmental and social sustainability. The country is developing fast and now is the time Chinese decision makers have the choice whether to create cities that are suitable for cars or for their people. Currently it seems they decide to follow the bad example of the Western nations and construct cities for cars. Some rare measures are taken to tackle the traffic situation. Shanghai for example started restricting the number of new license plates per month to 3,000 and Beijing is constructing a number of new subway lines. But generally the solution to traffic seems to be the construction of more and more streets, including unpleasant elevated roads, which block the sun and leave the streets empty of pedestrians. It has been proven in the past in other countries, though, that the construction of new streets will never keep pace with growing number of cars. It is therefore not a path to copy.

So what is the most sustainable solution for the growing traffic problems in China? It would be wonderful to see Chinese decision-makers follow the example of Mr. Penalosa in Bogota. Public transport and the use of bikes have to be made more attractive. The introduction of a BRT system would cost the government 0.5 to 1% of the costs for extending the subway system and it is as efficient as a subway. With the money left sidewalks could be widened, bike-roads could be extended and the cities could be greened.

Some cities in China are already working with or introducing BRT systems. Beijing will soon have its first BRT line south of Qian Men and Kunming has already several separate bus lines in the city. These are positive examples and the forum in Kunming gave reasons for hope that China’s leadership will decide to create pleasant cities for children and elderly and not decide to continue building cities for cars.

BRT offers high quality public transportation that can meet or exceed the performance of most rail systems at a fraction of the cost. BRT enables communities to address transportation needs quickly while leaving resources for other important priorities, like schools and parks. Usually two separate bus lines are created wither in the middle or at both sides of a heavily frequented street. Cars are kept from entering these separate lines by little walls or fences. The bus stops are accessible for the pedestrian by a bridge or a tunnel. The buses pass at a high frequency, so that the waiting times are reduced and crowded buses are avoided

Partnership Initiatives(Back To Top)

Green SOS Fund “Community Project Grant” Launch

Many small student groups were drowning in quagmire and couldn’t obtain their project goals. This was due to a number of reasons: group change, financial shortage, or timing. As a result, our groups discovered that one third or more of our project expectation and goals were decreased.

In 2004, we have organized many activities. However, after repeatedly scaling down our goals we ask ourselves should we be proud of any of them? Can we really make it? Can we calmly scale our resources, work on one project at a time, and have enough resources to perfect it to assure that our projects represent the enthusiasm and hard work of our organization.

The launch of the Green SOS Fund “Community Project Grant” gives us this very opportunity.

Who says you can’t change the world？

Our grant objective: To help fund energetic green students groups, and individuals from the student groups.

Our grant target:

• On-going community projects;
• Finished community projects;
• Expanding existing community projects.

We expect that you have already started to summarize and accumulated relative inner resources. We hope to solve the coming problems and shortages with you.

Our fund source: Our fund is from an Asian fund that totals RMB 10, 000. This funding is dedicated to the promotion of student groups involved in sustainable community development. A portion of the fund, RMB5000 to RMB6000, is allotted for the “Student Groups Community Project Grant”.

Our grant: RMB500～1000, depending on your application.

Duration and deadline of application: Please see our website for more information.

The application requires each group submit a project proposal listing both current resources and what specific resources are expected from the Green SOS Fund.

The resources that are provided by the Green SOS Fund are referred to as the “package”. The package amount will be determined by the project proposals.

Currently our funding is limited, Green SOS is able to offer now is funding, information, and training. We at Green SOS will make the most of our excellent group to find more resources to enrich the content of our packages.

Please look at our website for more information: http://www.greensos.org

The principle of GreenSOS Fund is that we offer you not only the money, but also the most wanted exterior resources and the best methods to integrate them into your organization.

Our goal : To enrich groups with not only money but also knowledge and training.

Our motto: Teaching one how to fish is better than giving one a fish.

Please see our website for more information. We will release more detailed grant information in the near future.

GreenSOS Fund Temporary Secretariat

Upcoming Conferences (Back To Top)

Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2004

Date:Dec. 6-8, 2004

Location:Agra, India

Organizer:Jointly hosted by India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) and the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia).In the past, the series of the BAQ conference (an annual event of the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities) attracted a great number of Chinese participants. The BAQ 2004 again can be ofagreatinteresttothose workingonairquality managementissuesin China. BAQ 2004will give representatives from national and local governments, civil society, academics, andthe private sector the unique opportunity to interact with other stakeholders and share their experiences on better air quality management in the Asian region.

Objectives: general - discuss air quality management and control techniques in Asiaand how stakeholders can benefit from worldwide experiences; technical—expose participants to new technological developments in air quality monitoring, and discussrecommendations on appropriate technical solutions for different countries; policy—share innovative and effective examples of air quality management, and adopt a strategic framework for air quality management and control in Asia.

Contact: Glynda Bathan (BAQ 2004 Secretariat): gbathan@adb.org

Website: www.baq2004.org

International Conference on Environment and Circular Economy

Date:Dec. 8-11, 2004

Location:Tianjin

Venue: Nankai Unversity, Tianjin

Organizer: Centre for Environmental and Social Development Studies at Nankai University, Tianjin, Environment and Development Divisionofthe Central Committeeof China Zhi Gong Party

Contact:Ni Xiaoyun, Tel.+86-22-23500557,+86-22-23508936, Fax: +86-22-23500557,

Email: nkesd@nankai.edu.cn

International Conference on Education for a Sustainable Future (ESF)

Date:Jan. 18-20, 2005

Location:Ahmedabad, India

Venue: Centre for Environmental Education

Content:ESF is planned as a forum that will showcase the rich experiences made throughout Asia, and building on worldwide experiences. The conference will help focus much needed attention on the integral role of education and communication for the success of any strategy towardsattaining a sustainable future. It will work towards making the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) truly effective in leveraging support for education and communication and its strategic use, taking stock of experiences in this area. Moreover, aconcrete plan of action for governments, educators, NGOs, and other stakeholders towards a sustainable future will be discussed.The conference will consist of the following thematic workshops:education to enhance livelihood security, information servicing for cleaner solutions, education and communication for biodiversity conservation, strengthening participation for natural resource management, education and communication for water and sanitation, education and communication to support sustainable habitats, communication to support MEAs (Multilateral Environmental Agreements), capacity building for waste management, energy education, education for ocean conservation,fragileecosystems,formaleducation,capacitybuildingforESD,enabling mechanisms, information and communication technologies, media and communication, youth and ESD.

Window of Communities (Back To Top)

From the Editor: Window of Communities is a new section of Voices of Grassroots. It focuses the vigorous development of communities in both urban and rural areas. Many Chinese and international organizations have focused on the development of communities in the countryside, some are very successful while some others are not. We wish to learn about their experiences from reporting their activities. From this volume on, VOG would be pleased to receive any materials or updates on the community topics.

Green Hanjiang Sets Up Model Rural Communities

Xiangfan is a large agricultural city with a 3.66 million agricultural population. Green Hanjiang started with protecting their mother river Hanjiang and later on realized that agriculture greatly affects the environment and water quality. Therefore, in July 2003, Green Hanjiang decided start environmental education in rural villages.

Since then, they have conducted environmental training and rural community development at schools and counties in rural areas. They have trained the people on growing organic tea and vegetables, garbage separating and collecting. Now many farmers now are aware of environmental problems and willing to make their village environmentally friendly.

--Green Hanjiang

Ye Leilei, an artist, professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and founder of the African community of northern Philadelphia and founder of “Artists without Borders”, was invited to give a talk on her outstanding community and poverty alleviation work on 27th, November.

Yi Le Village, once was a forgotten community in northern Philadelphia and one of the poorest communities in the U.S. 17 years ago. Ms. Ye came to the US alone, not afraid of the low-income neighborhood with high rates of crime and drug use; she used her talent to turn the plain buildings into colorful works of art. Four years ago, she started to teach art to inmates. The inmates are able to express their feelings and their inner world through art. Many inmates became good friends with Ms. Ye after they were released from jail.

Now, in the 14 parks of Yi Le Village, people can see art works produced by community residents and children; every year, more than 10,000 people benefit from dancing, cooking, computer training and other activities; the village has also received $100,000 fund from Wachovia Bank and a prize of smart utility of the land from the governor of Pennsylvania State.

--Friends of Nature, Canyushi Participatory Action

In recent years, education in rural areas has gained more and more social attention and support. This is a good start. However, we see challenges coming along with opportunities. Beside the materials and financial support, what else can we do to help the kids in poor rural communities? On November 20th, Beijing Brooks Education Center invited guests from the Phelex Foundation; this group has financed schools to develop their own agricultural projects, rural schools and interested community members. The group discussed how to make the most of their resources, how to use social influence to help schools get support and how schools can contribute to the local economy.

Educators from schools in low-income areas shared their experiences in teaching and improving the quality of education. They also pointed out that the content of what kids learn in poor rural places is too far away from their lives and they can not use what they learn at school in their daily lives.

--Beijing Brooks Education Center

Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology Launches “School for Parents” Program

On September 27th, the School for Parents started its first class. Professor Wang Qicui from Shanxi Normal University gave the community residents a lecture on “Modern Children Education”. In order to improve ethical education of the youth, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology focuses on family education as their main approach to improve the general quality of education.

--Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology

Second Meeting with Tianlin Green Community

From November 3rd to 6th, the second meeting of Beijing Green Community representatives and Shanghai Tianlin Green Community representative was held in the Tianlin community, Shanghai.

Lectures, open forums and home visits took place during the meeting. Residents exchanged information, experience and success stories on green community development and increasing residents’ awareness.

At the conclusion of the meeting Wumin from Global Village of Beijing gave the closing statements. She said Shanghai community residents have good levels of public participation and environmental awareness and Beijing has done a good job in public participation in green communities. However, other communities have not yet had the same success. Therefore, there’s potential for Beijing green communities to spread their concept and model and share experience with other communities. We should combine our advantages to make green communities develop more efficiently.

--Global Village of Beijing

From the Editor: Rural community development, especially in the areas where ethnic minority groups are living, culture, religion, lifestyle and environment are all closely related. These are all important factors to be considered when implementing projects in such areas. The two short essays we chose for this issue briefly introduce the relationship between the local culture and their environment. We are hoping that this knowledge will be helpful for NGOs to do a better project.

Forest and wood of Iron Knife Trees Community (Cassia siamea)

The Dai minority has always lived in the forest. They utilize all the forest’s resources for timber, food and herbal medicines. Alternating cultivation of forest and crops is practiced. They live in the forest where they are shaded under the canopy and protected by the trees from tropical storms. For these reasons, they are very concerned with their living environment, and treasure their forest resources very much.Damage to the forest is strictly forbidden.

The Holy tree (Ficus altissima) and the "Buddhist tree" (Ficus religiosa) are planted for blessing of the gods. Fruit trees and many kinds of useful trees (such as Tectona grandis) are planted in every garden. Every village is like a botanical garden which is beautiful and productive.

The Iron Knife Tree (Cassia siamea) has strong trunks which are mainly used for domestic fuel. Their activity of planting fuel-timber has become an eye-opening sight for Xishuangbanna. This kind of timber is very suitable for planting and burning in local bamboo houses. It has very good economical value as it re-growth after harvesting is very quick. It is said that ten trees can sustain an entire family’s cooking and heating needs for hundreds of years. Dai people believe that if there were no forest, there would be no water, no farmland and no grain. Therefore, they plant the Iron Knife Tree instead of cutting down the forest.

Traditional Village Rules and Forest Protection

Chen Zhake, Wa Nationality, Gaixin Village, Donghui Xiang, Lancang County

NGO Capacity (Back To Top)

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