This volume of The China Environment Yearbook is the second in a series of annual records written, commissioned, produced, and edited by Friends of Nature, Chinaâs premier environmental non-governmental organization. This book provides a window on debates and events as they have affected Chinaâs struggles toward a more just and sustainable model of development during the year 2006. Courageous essays question policies of fencing Inner Mongolian grasslands in a way that contradicts local culture and ecology; probe the wisdom of the South-to-North water transfer scheme in the upper Yangzi (and of a potentially even more ecologically intrusive mega-project called the Shuotian Grand Canal Project); and analyze shortcomings in government efforts to clean up some of Chinaâs most heavily polluted waterways. There are candid accounts of new levels of environmental degradation in rural areas and of the difficulties encountered in Chinaâs effort to produce a âgreen GDPâ that would accurately reflect the costs of natural resource extraction and pollution. Other hard-hitting articles describe Chinaâs role in the global trade in illegal logging, analyze the problem of âcancer villages,â and make clear the seriousness of problems with widespread groundwater contamination and lack of access to safe drinking water.
Yang Dongping is co-founder and vice president of Friends of Nature and professor of education at the Beijing Institute of Technology.
Friends of Nature was the first environmental non-governmental organization in the Peopleâs Republic of China, established in 1994 by Liang Congjie, Yang Dongping, Liang Xiaoyan and Wang Lixiong. The organization has more than 3000 active members and has been recipient fifteen prestigious national and international awards.
"The extensive data and many case studies inform Western readers of Chinaâs environmental challenges and how they may be addressed. Its broad selection of topics will appeal to all who are interested in Chinaâs environmental affairs. Because it is nontechnical, even readers with limited formal environmental education can easily understand the material...Changes and Struggles is a worthy addition to university and public libraries."
Herman F. Huang, China Review International: Volume 16, No. 3, 2009
Introduction
Judith Shapiro
GENERAL REPORT
Standing at a New Vantage PointâChinaâs Environment in 2006, the First Year of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan
Hu Kanping
PART ONE: THE ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
Challenges of and Prospects for Green GDP Accounting
Zhang Ying
Pan Yueâs Reflections on the Environment
Hu Kanping
Environmental Fiscal Reform (EFR) Is the Key to Realizing Environmental Targets in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan
Ma Zhong, Wu Jian
A Good Beginning: Environmental Legislation in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan â A 2006 Update
Ning Chen, Wu Zhijiao
Environmental Problems in Developing the New Socialist Countryside
Wang Peng
Rural Society Coping with Pollution
Tao Chuanjin
The Wushan Model: Building a Sustainable New Socialist Countryside
Sun Jun
Greening Chinaâs Film Industry in 2006
Guo Xiaojun
The Evolution of International NGOs in China: Broadening Environmental Collaboration and Shifting Priorities
W. Chad Futrell
PART TWO: ECOLOGY
The Environmental Impacts of Large-scale Construction Projects
Fan Xiao
Are Fences and Grazing Bans the Best Tools for Controlling Desertification?
Liu Shurun
PART THREE: WATER
Gaining and Maintaining Access to Safe Drinking Water
Zhao Wengen
Controlling Pollution in the Huaihe River Basin: Still a Long Way to Go
Huo Daishan
Water Rights Trading in China
Li Xi, Liu Mei
Mapping Water Pollution in China: Informational Transparency at Work
Ma Jun
PART FOUR: FORESTS
The Ecological Benefits of Improving the Quality of Forests
Shen Xiaohui
Forest Rights âReformâ and Natural Forest Protection
Feng Yongfeng
Chinese Wood Products Trades and the Illegal Timber Trade
Tamara Stark, Shi Pengxiang, Cheng Yun
PART FIVE: APPENDIX
Annual Indexes: Environmental Data and Trends
All those interested in developments in China's environment and environmental policy. Also an excellent primary source for analysis of the political climate for NGOs and public intellectual and policy discourse in China.