Projects

Environmental Education

'Friends of Nature' has made environmental education the primary focus of its work. Since 1999, in order to promote environmental education, it has launched the 'Environmental Education Van Program' as well as an action to further environmental awareness among secondary school students in rural areas: 'The Green Hope Initiative'. In details...

Antelope Van - The Antelope Van is used for environmental education projects at local schools and schools for migrant children (who live close to Beijing). The Van team train and assist local volunteers deliver education programs to the kids.

Staff - Zhang Hehe

The Antelope Van, the first environmental education van in China, was started on June 1st, 2000. Equipped with teaching materials and facilities, the Antelope Van is a moving classroom for environmental education. It offers children in Beijing and elsewhere opportunities of playing nature games, participating in environmental education and on-the-spot investigation. In the past few years, with the support from Save Our Future (an environmental NGO in Germany), the Swedish Embassy in China, Ford Motor Co. and Oxfam Hong Kong, the Antelope Van has visited hundreds of schools, sharing environment-related educational activities with thousands of students. It also features teacher training by introducing advanced approaches of environmental education to primary school teachers. In 2003 alone, the Van conducted 37 teaching activities at primary and secondary schools and two training programs with nearly 300 university students participating. In March 2001, it started a "Green Life Practice," a program designed to preach the virtues of an environmental-friendly lifestyle through visits to communities where FON members interacted with local residents by collecting used batteries, exchanging recycled paper products with waste paper and demonstrating how to sort through garbage into recyclable and non-recyclable categories, etc. More than 800 people took an active part in the program. The event was covered extensively by such influential media as CCTV and People's Daily. During eight such visits, 1680 kg of waste paper and 500 kg of used batteries were collected.

In 2001, with the help of Unilever and Chinese Agriculture Web, another environmental mobile classroom, the Wild Pony Van, was launched. Like the Antelope Van, it aimed at raising the environmental awareness of the public. But its mission was to spread its educational programs to China's remote areas, where environmental education was extremely inadequate. In a short period of time after its inauguration, the Wild Pony Van traveled to Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Guizhou, Yunnan and other far-away provinces. In 2002, through a program called "Wild Pony Returns Home," Friends of Nature invited some of its members born in rural areas and those who once lived and worked in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution to offer environmental education courses as volunteers for three to five days at selected rural schools. In 2003, FON donated the Wild Pony Van to Green Rivers, an environmental NGO in Sichuan Province.

Better Environment Scheme
The Better Environment Scheme hold training workshops and go to schools in 6 cities; Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, GuangZhou, and Huizhou. The main goal is to get schools to start Environ Ed. programs; sometimes they fund activities to help the schools get started.

Staff - Li Jian

Better environment scheme
The Better Environment Scheme, which is executed by FON and sponsored by Shell Companies, encourages primary and middle school students to design and implement environment protection projects in their own communities. In details...

Better Environment Scheme
Originally launched in Hong Kong, Better Environment was introduced into Chinese Mainland in 1996. Its theme is to encourage primary and secondary school students to design and implement proposals for environmental protection. At present, Better Environment is in operation in the following five cities-Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Nanjing. Friends of Nature administers the program in Beijing. In November 2003, the fifth Better Environment Scheme started in Beijing. A total of 345 proposals from 77 schools in 10 districts and counties were turned in. This reflects the great enthusiasm of the participants. On July 30th, 2004, funded by Shell, China, the Fifth Summer Camp of Better Environment for Exchange and Training was held in Mentougou District. At the summer camp, 60 proposals were granted awards of excellence after the oral defense by each proposal designer and evaluation by experts. The aim of Better Environment is to encourage young people to use their brains and hands in solving specific environmental problems and improving the living environment.

Environmental Educator Training
With the vigorous opening up of China's western areas, the vulnerable ecological conditions there have caught people's attention. It is believed that many environmental problems such as sand storm, soil erosion, flood, drying river and land degradation are the results of the destruction of forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc. and the irrational utilization of natural resources in the West. The economic development of China's eastern areas repeated the pattern of "pollution before prevention; destruction before protection" of the Western countries. Should the economic growth of China's West follow the same footsteps? It is with this consideration that FON initiated this training program in November 2002. The program, including short-cycle classes, public lectures and voluntary work, is aimed at training teachers in rural areas so that their environmental awareness and ability to address local environmental problems will be enhanced. Through their efforts, local programs on environmental protection could be established and sustained with inputs of small financial grants. In this teacher training program emphasis is placed on the connection between knowledge and skills and the combination of education with local conditions. In a word, the initiative of people will be brought into full play so that they will do their best to promote economic growth while preserving the ecology. From November 2002 to September 2003, seven programs were successfully organized in Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces. Of the people who received training, 581 were rural teachers and 30 were administrators at grassroots level.

Green Hope Action - Train volunteers to go to Hope Schools (in poor rural and regional areas of China) and deliver Environmental Education programs. Volunteers do an "Education Tour" and visit anywhere between 3 and 23 schools.

Staff - Wang JiangHong , Meng Yan ,Hana

Launched in April 2000, the Green Hope Initiative is an environmental education program funded by the Miseror Catholic Organization for Third World Development and implemented by Friends of Nature and China Youth Development Foundation, the largest sponsor of the Hope Project. The cycle of the program is from May to December every year. Its aim is to raise awareness of environmental protection and sustainable development in elementary schools established by the Hope Project. The Green Hope Initiative investigates in and experiments with suitable teaching materials and methods for environmental education in rural areas. It provides members of Friends of Nature with an invaluable opportunity to get a better understanding of the current educational and environmental situation in rural China while highlighting the value of volunteerism. During the first year, the Green Hope Initiative was introduced to 20 schools in 8 provinces in China. Up to now, 76 groups have visited 150 schools in 17 provinces. In the spring of 2004, about 400 new volunteers applied for the Initiative. In June training was conducted for new participants. For 2004, 28 groups with three or four volunteers in each group have been organized and their visits cover Hope primary schools in vast areas, including Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, Guangxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hubei Provinces. Each group usually is scheduled to stay at a Hope school for three days, offering a minimum of eight hours of teaching on environmental protection. A work report is required upon the completion of the visit. Many of the reports written in the past show that while this project brings environmental education to where it is needed most, it is also educational for the volunteer teachers themselves (most of them being city dwellers), in that the first-hand understanding of poverty-stricken rural areas greatly enrich their personal experience and broaden their vision.

Mobile Education - FON staff train and assist local Environ. NGOs develop their own mobile education programs (like the Antelope Van). The project has been running since 2003 and works everywhere they can in China.

Staff - Li Jie

DMEEN -Mobile Environmental Education Network
Mobile Environmental Education Network in China is a brand new project proposed by Friends of Nature.

The Chinese people's values and ways of living have undergone tremendous changes in the fast growth of China's economy. As they are enjoying a much more abundant material life, they are also running the risk of having a deteriorating environment. Environmental education is not yet a compulsory subject in primary and secondary school curriculum, and it is almost non-existent in most parts of the countryside. But the rural youngsters desperately need environmental education in order to avoid following the older generations' footsteps of pursuing for prosperity at the cost of the environment. With the introduction of the mobile classroom-a van equipped with facilities for environmental education, experienced teachers can travel to the rural areas to provide educational programs on environment.
The success of the Antelope Van has proved the effectiveness of environmental education. At the same time, local NGOs and nature reserves in Guizhou, Shanxi, Qinghai and Xinjiang showed great interest in this environmental education model.
Friends of Nature recently put forward a proposal of developing a mobile environmental education network in China to raise environmental awareness in both big cities and the countryside. The project is to be coordinated by FON and participated by local NGOs in various provinces with a concentration on poverty-stricken areas and their vulnerable ecosystems.

Green Consumption

Beijing for Bikes - working to promote and celebrate Beijing's bike culture (careful wording). Host rides and activities as well as the Transport Challenge, a web survey that asks people to take 3 different forms of transport to work in a week (one has to be bike) and enter the details. Also researching to make policy recommendations.

Staff - Hu Huizhe (Vera)

Organics - a pilot program at a large community on the outskirts of the city. People use the Intranet (BBS) to order their food directly from the local organic farm. They want to expand the project but due to the very high cost of organics in China are not having as much success as they'd like.

Staff -Hu Huizhe and Yu Jin

Green Change Exchange - Project to formalize and increase communication among student environment groups.

Staff - Hu Huizhe

Qinling Mountain Survey - Surveying the impact of the "National Reserve Policy" on the local community who live in the reserve. The Qinling Mountains are a high conservation value site in China. (they are also the traditional divide between Northern and Southern China, i.e. Areas where the government pays to put heating in buildings and areas where it doesn't)

3-2003 Cengjing Grasslands
FON hold a cultural exhibition about Inner-Mongolian grassland ecosystems and nomad culture in Beijing. In April 2004 the exhibition travelled around Inner Mongolia as well as other provinces, increasing public awareness of Grassland culture and the value of grassland ecosystems.

FON also worked with the Cengjing Grassland and Friends of Steppe to establish a commitment to protect the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.

Protection of the Tibetan Antelope
For more than 10 years FON has supported the Kekexili local initiative, the "Yak Team" to protect the Tibetan Antelope.
In October 1998 Liang Congjie wrote a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealing to developed nations to boycott goods made from Tibetan Antelopes. His request was well received and echoed around the world.

Staff - Yang Dabin

Protected areas Exhibition - A photo exhibition showing the beauty of and damage done to Protected Areas in China.

Staff - Su Yutong

Research and Policy
Research and Policy has been part of FON's work since its registration as an NGO in 1994.

3-5-2003 President/Chairman Liang Congjie facilitated the CPPCC proposal to improve/strengthen the/a? Wildlife Protection Law "suggest modifying the Wildlife protection law" as soon as possible. Representing the CPPCC he requested that the scope of wildlife protection laws be extended. This was the first proposal regarding wildlife protection laws after the SARS outbreak. FON is a consultant to the NPC environment department.

More recently FON has create the Research Department that undertakes both formal research and conducts on the ground inquiries and/or investigations into environmental issues.

Green Culture Lecture
FON has hosted Green culture Lectures over 100 times since its beginning.

Green Cover Book
FON has created China's first green cover book. Based on the Blue cover book, it comprehensively explains environmental issues in China from an NGO persprective. More¡­

Roundtable Conference about Development -
Green Lawyers - another aspect of FON's direct research is backing it up with legal advice and or assistance. (More here)

Affiliated Projects
China Rivers Network - mainly working in Yunnan (SW China) to protect tributaries of the Yangzi and stop more dams being built. A group of 7 NGOs in China.

26 degrees campaign - The 26 degrees campaign is an energy saving initiative that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by getting people to set their air-conditioners to 26 degrees or higher, thus saving energy and reducing GHG emissions.

HP Printer Cartridge Recycling - Global Village of Beijing FON helped establish the printer cartridge program. For more details see the global village website

Grants

Dandelion Small Grants Scheme
In 2002, Friends of Nature launched the "Dandelion" Small Grants program in collaboration with the German Miseror Catholic Organization for Third World Development. FON is aware that non-governmental organizations serve as an irreplaceable link in environmental protection. In China, such organizations are new and weak, needing both moral and financial support. Based on this recognition, FON and Miseror jointly initiated the program to provide small grants to NGOs devoted to protecting local ecological conditions. Miseror provides financial support while FON manages the grants and implements the program. The "Dandelion" Small Grants are divided into two categories: grants for NGOs and grants for university student bodies. The maximum grant for each NGO recipient is RMB 50,000 while the grant for a student body is no more than RMB 3,000. Since the announcement of the "Dandelion" Small Grants, FON has received more than 100 applications. At the invitation of FON, 5 experts in environmental protection formed an evaluation committee, and after careful evaluation, the committee decided to make grants to 5 NGOs and 22 student bodies. The cycle of the program is two years from applying to final completion and assessment. Most of the grantees have completed their proposed projects by now.

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