Posted by Cheng Shuling, Program Officer for Dalian Environmental Resources Center (DERC)

Before my trip to Hainan, the most southern province of China, where I was assigned to investigate the shark fin trade, I knew very little about the meaning behind the words “shark fin” and “shark”. I had never seen a  shark fin before, let alone a shark. I had learned from books and films that shark fins are used for culinary delicacies. After I completed this investigation, I learned that behind these dishes there was a shocking and tragic truth.

The  South China Sea is rich in shark.  Fishermen have fishing operations all year round in the Nansha, Xisha and Zhongsha Islands. And sharks are an important species to this region. I did not go to the islands for this particular research project, but I did get to know where shark fins are sold and consumed in Haikou.

In Haikou, the most concentrated places for selling shark fins are in supermarkets and street markets. In these areas, various styles of shark fins are sold at different prices and in various types of baskets or bags. The average consumer often thinks shark fins are highly nutritious.  Sellers will also persuade customers that shark fins are high in protein and worth buying. The seller will also seek to explain to customers the various ways to cook with shark fin. If you buy it, they will even prepare a beautiful gift box so that you can send it to your friends in a nice package. Generally speaking, shark fins are exotic and in demand everywhere, often grabbing the attention of visitors.

In the East Gate market, after talking to sellers about other topics, one seller eventually told me that she sold three shark fin gift boxes immediately before our conversation: each at the price of about 70 dollars and at a weight of 37.8 grams.

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Posted by Zhang Yadong, Executive Director of Green Longjiang

I am almost done with the research survey that I was assigned to do on the shark trade in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. Except to update some photographs, I would not normally walk into a shop full of shark fins, open the menu of an Abalones and Fins Restaurant or even have a look at the body of a shark in a commodities market.

I still remember my initial doubt on conducting this shark trade research survey in Harbin when Wen Bo told me to do so: Isn’t it (shark fins) a traditional custom for southern China? Is it even a good idea to do such survey in Harbin, a place thousands of miles away from the ocean and without a traditional consumption custom? However, today, I know the answer.

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posted by Wen Bo, China Program Co-Director, Pacific Environment

The third and final day of the conference was titled “Pondering Gaps and Needs of Stakeholders in Taihu Basin. How to Build New Clean Water Networks?”

Jun Bi, the local organizer from Nanjing University was the first to speak. In his presentation, he noted that NGOs in China are very weak and that they need to work with researchers and governments more.  He also stated that NGOs often lack funding and the necessary knowledge to be effective. He acknowledged that he also belongs to an NGO called PACE, whose members are mostly Ph.Ds, and have access to governmental officials. He indicated that no matter how hard an environmental NGO tries, there is no single comment that could be made in front of governor of Jiangsu province that would actually influence a government’s decision making.

Jun Bi made the point that most people in the Lake Tai region seem to care more about their own interests than collective interests such as environmental improvements. And, that like it or not, the economy of Lake Tai region would have to first double to keep up with the demand of the people’s wishes to develop their economy; and, that similarly, China, would have to develop first even if to some extent at the price of the environment.

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Posted by Wen Bo

This week, I attended a conference in Nanjing, China on Taihu Lake water pollution. The event was organized by the Woodrow Wilson Center, Japanese Institute of Developing Economics (IDE-JETRO) and Nanjing University.

Several of my colleagues from partner organizations based in China were there as well as several from U.S. based organizations, including one from Great Lakes Office of National Wildlife Federation. On the Japanese side, there were five to six institutions, including professors, researchers and one NGO, Japan for Sustainability.

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Posted by Yang Chu

It’s the 14^th day of my 28-day trip backpacking around China to help seek out, investigate, and report on sources of water pollution. I’m in a village in Bengbu, trying not to breathe as factories around me belch black smoke into the air. With me is Zhouxiang and Zhangjun, Executive Director and Operations Director of Green Anhui, respectively. Next to us a group of local construction workers are in the middle of re-plastering the walls on someone’s decrepit looking house.

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Posted by Xiu Min Li

I arrived in Hong Kong thinking that I had packed a perfect amount of clothes. The weather was warm and humid but also slightly breezy at times. Weather.com was once again reliable until the Chinese government decided to shoot some silver iodide and dry ice into the sky, to induce rain to relieve the drought in the north. It set off a snow storm and extreme weather conditions across the country that was to claim 40 lives and billions of dollars in lost agricultural and industrial productions. Luckily, all it gave me was a cold that lasted for weeks. When I arrived in Guangzhou it was as if I had walked into a freezer. I scrambled to a nearby mall and filled up my suitcase with new winter clothes. By the time I sat down at Green Eyes’ office near Zhongshan University, I was appropriately bundled up.

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Posted by Xiu Min Li

I was born and grew up along a tributary of the Pearl River, the Fenjiang in Foshan. In the early 90s, one of our favorite pastimes during the warm summer nights, was to get “yeshao” or “midnight snacks” at the dozens of outdoor eateries that sprang up along “Fenjiang”, the Fen River. These eateries would cook up greasy but tasty fried noodles, fried rice and various seafood stir fries. Vegetables and dishes were washed with water directly pulled up in buckets from the river. No one thought much of it.

By the time I returned from my first trip home after immigrating to the US, in 1998, things had turned badly. The Fenjiang smelled like the Soy Sauce factory nearby and had many different colors similar to the textiles coming out of another factory. In my most recent trip last year, the river didn’t smell as bad, but still look dead, if not poisonous. People had different ideas as to which factories caused the pollution, but everyone accepted the situation as inevitable and never bothered with finding out the truth. Then this week came a timely and well investigated Greenpeace report on the companies that are poisoning the Pearl River and the larger political context which are allowing the situation to deteriorate. It answered so many questions and highlighted the urgency to speak up.

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Posted by Xiu Min Li

PE’s partner in Liaoning province, the Dalian Environment and Resources Center (DERC) and the Dalian Environmental Volunteers Association brought together more than 150 volunteers to participate in the United Nation’s International Day of Actions for Climate Change. Enthusiastic volunteers cleaned up the beach and turned it into a stage for a theatric play that highlighted the threat of Climate Change to Dalian, a coastal city facing the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west and south.

Posted by Yang Chu

Yang Chu, China Program Associate at Pacific Environment, sat down with Zhao Zhong, a Pacific Environment partner and Time Environmental Hero of the Year.

Zhao Zhong, tell us about how you became an environmental activist in China, and why you chose Gansu Province as your base.

I’ve always been a mountaineering enthusiast. In my travels I saw beautiful sceneries but also serious environmental problems. I felt I should do something, and started by picking up garbage in my hikes. After graduating from University I moved to Gansu for a position with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There, I saw declining ecosystems and a lack of NGO presence, so I established Green Camel Bell. Now I am a full time environmentalist.

What are your thoughts on being named a 2009 Hero of the Environment by Time Magazine, and what impact do you foresee this honor having on your cause?

So many other environmentalists also deserve this honor, so many have contributed as much or more than me. My own contributions are made possible by the Green Camel Bell team. Perhaps more volunteers will join us now from abroad, and we will receive more attention from researchers and the media. Time Magazine named me a hero for water pollution monitoring, but the work of Green Camel Bell is more than that – I will continue to focus on supporting rural communities and developing NGOs.

What advice do you have for those in China, and the rest of the world, who want to follow in your footsteps and work for environmental protection in their own communities?

Everyone has what it takes to go into environmental protection. Everyone can be a hero of the environment.

What immediate plans do you have for yourself and your organization? Where do you see yourself decades from now, and what will you be doing?

In the immediate future I’ll be completing two projects, from the World Bank and the Ford Foundation, which will have me working in rural communities for much of my time. I’m also improving the operations at Green Camel Bell, to make the organization run more smoothly and sustainably. As for the distant future, it’s hard to see years into the future, everything is changing so fast.