Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
overseas oil policies exclusively, rather than including China's SOEs in
discussion on global standards, will lose an opportunity to inform and
improve Chinese practices. In addition, Shirk's (2007) assessment of how
Chinese students have demonstrated against international injustices
imposed on
China implies that a distrust of outsiders may include nonlo-
cal communities, activists, and NGOs, which may be interpreted as
impeding China's development by constraining its access to the minerals
and fossil fuels of others.
To begin to disentangle this conundrum, this section assesses the
competing agendas of the conservation and EJ networks in responding
to the oil industry, identifi es how Northern NGOs pressure China indi-
rectly by demanding higher Northern standards that the Chinese aspire
to meet, and suggests that South American organizations are critical to
regulating China's oil practices and perhaps even to encouraging China's
own activism. To do so requires a descriptive account of linked events
and activities in China, Latin America, and the global North.
Bridging Conservancy Campaigns
In China, the country's budding environmental movement remains
domestic, with a focus on conservation and limited, localized activism
(Economy 2004). China's organizations, and especially its government-
organized, nongovernmental organizations, or GONGOs (Economy
2004), are more likely to adopt campaigns that have been enabled or
permitted by state authorities than to exert pressure on the government,
while few engage in oppositional activities (Tao 2008). For example,
Friends of Nature, China's fi rst environmental organization (launched in
1994), focuses on environmental education, tree planting, and wildlife
and habitat conservation rather than environmental toxins in workplaces
and communities.
Likewise, the presence of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) in China also supports a conservation-centric
orientation to the environment. For example, TNC supported China's
fi rst national park, Pudacuo National Park, in the southwest Yunnan
Province in 2007. In addition to establishing conservation projects
worldwide, Northern NGOs provide at least two important services for
their Southern partners. First, Northern organizations link China's up-
and-coming conservationists to worldwide campaigns, including poten-
tial allies in Latin America. Second, they introduce their corporate ties
to their Southern partners, who may adopt similar patterns of negotia-
tion rather than confrontation. For example, Ecuadorian NGOs with
