Cue for governance

Cue for governance

The greatest hurdle in meeting China's environmental challenges is for the Chinese people to appreciate that it isn't merely the job of the government. Opinion polls indicate that even when the people are aware of environmental problems, economic development takes precedence. Government agencies entrusted with the task of enforcement of environmental regulations have not delivered given the decentralised nature of governance. The central government, on the other hand, feels that public awareness and activism would help their environmental protection plans. Qu Geping, chairperson of the Environmental Resources Protection Committee under the National People's Congress, has said: "The degree of popular participation in environmental protection work is an important indicator of the success or failure of environmental protection in the country."

This commitment is also clear from the inclusion in 1994 of a clause on environmental education in China's Agenda 21. The report states: "Environmental protection concerns the survival and development of the entire nation. All the people's governments and departments must enhance their consciousness of the importance of environmental protection, strengthen publicity and education on environmental protection, popularise environmental knowledge and legal knowledge, and raise the environmental awareness and understanding of environmental law of the entire nation."

As rural residents receive much of their information from village meetings run by officials, it is not unlikely that these officials avoid incorporation of environmental education. Corruption among officials also breeds mistrust. The revision of the Environmental Protection Law in 1989 called for regular pollution reports to be made available to the public. However, it wasn't until 1997 that regular reports of air quality measurements were actually made available. Many local officials have opposed making this information public, claiming that it could lead to social unrest or that it needs to be kept secret out of "diplomatic necessity". The central government and sepa are quite obviously at cross-purposes with local-level officials.

Another factor worth noting is the lack of national consistency. While some relatively remote towns might be running recycling programme, for instance, some taxi drivers in Beijing still have no idea why they haven't seen a blue sky in years. Pollution is often regarded as a fact of life. There are some things to get encouraged about. While the central government is the first on the list, the second is the intense campaign to inform and educate people about the environmental degradation and the ongoing legal reforms and legal processes taken up by the media. Another good sign is the creation of 'hotlines', places where ordinary citizens can register complaints against a variety of issues from legislative drafts to environmental concerns. Local environmental protection bureaus, which suffer from fund crunch, are increasingly finding that reports on polluters come more often from local citizens, rather than official investigations. But the hotlines are restricted to urban areas.

Yang Quin, a photographer, has made a small impact by helping establish the Suonandaje Wildlife Protection Station in Kekexili. Student groups are emerging on university campuses. Their numbers might be small right now, but they are rising. Civil society groups are seeing a surge in the number of people who want to be become involved. Grassroots projects to educate farmers about sustainable farming practices. But, again, many of these movements are restricted to urban areas.

Almost all of the information received by the public in China comes via the government media apparatus or informational meetings held by local party secretaries. Those who have access to newspapers, the press can work as a powerful force in disseminating information on environmental issues. Television can also be an influential medium -- there are over 250 million television sets right across the country, reaching people who have no other means to access this kind of information. As Internet becomes more widely accessible, the Chinese Academy of Sciences is making environmental legislation available online. For sustainable development to truly become a national objective, the public in China needs better access to higher quality information on environmental issues. China must struggle with economic reform and the need to devise sustainable policies. There are grave problems, but there are solutions as well. Grim statistics are matched by efforts that give reason to hope.

Changhua Wu is an associate in the Institutions and Governance Programme of the World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, and director for China studies, responsible for the institute's China activities, including strategic planning, project design and management, research and outreach. She is now managing WRI's China Profile Project