Cue for governance

29/06/2001

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

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