Members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan opened a new channel of communication for discussing environmental issues in China last week that hopes to sidestep contentious political issues.
The first gathering of dozens of NGO activists and environmental journalists from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China took place April 9 in Hong Kong.
The two-day Forum on Green NGOs and Environmental Journalism was sponsored by the US' Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, as well as the Center of Asian Studies and the Journalism Media Studies Center of the University of Hong Kong.
It was the first time that environmental activists and journalists from the three areas were able to exchange opinions on ecological conservation and environmental protection.
Wong Siu-lun (黃紹倫), director of the Center of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong in a speech to open the forum said that, in the past, people from the three regions tended to discuss political issues only. Wong said it was time for a change because a new regional grouping in Asia is forming and national boundaries would not necessarily mean a rigid separation.
"I think unofficial channels like this [for discussing non-political issues] should become a new model for people to approach China affairs," Wong said.
In answer to a question from the Taipei Times, Wong said that this type of forum should not be a sensitive issue for any government as long as people are rational.
"We're keeping it a rational gathering. We are not really [trying] to cultivate pressure groups. I think governments should already know this," Wong said.
Wong said that participants' appearance in Hong Kong proved that communication through such channels was actually encouraged. In addition, Wong said, this kind of gathering would build trust between NGOs and governments.
Jennifer Turner, senior project associate of the Environmental Change and Security Project (ECSP) of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars' Asia Program, said that the forum was a good chance for activists and members of NGOs from different areas to exchange experiences.
Through meetings, publications and the activities, the ECSP has explored a wide range of academic and policy-related topics in the US and other countries since 1994.
Topics include how environmental issues, population issues and security ideas are tied into the broader debate over redefining security and how governments and NGOs, businesses and other organizations respond to environmental and demographic issues.
In past years, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, a non-partisan center, established in 1968 by the US Congress, has made efforts to unite environmentalists from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In September 1999, the first NGO Forum on US-China Environmental Cooperation was held in the US state of Maryland. Last year, the center invited seven activists from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to Washington to discuss a future large gathering, which became the forum held in Hong Kong last week.
"Last year in Washington DC, we discussed the possibility of working together by allying with NGOs to solve regional environmental problems in Asia," Joyce Fu (伏嘉捷), secretary-general of Taiwan's Green Formosa Front (台灣綠色陣線), told the Taipei Times.
Fu was one of two representatives from Taiwan NGOs who were invited to the US last year by the center to help plan the forum.
"I do believe that activists in Taiwan have to reach out to incorporate foreign assistance in engaging in our local advocacy," Fu said.
For activists in Taiwan, however, it was not easy to narrow the gap between themselves and their counterparts in China.
Taiwan's environmental movement sprouted in the 1970s when a number of environmental pollution cases emerged, brought on by the nation's rapid economic development.
Compared with Taiwan, the environmental movement in China is still in its infancy. Until 1994, when Liang Congjie (
At the forum, Liang said that NGOs in China can educate the public in order to raise the environmental awareness.
The forum also drew international attention. Observers at the forum included representatives of the US-based Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, and the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in Europe.
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