Study On Chinese ENGOs' Participation In Environmental Protection

In an era where the sustainable development is widely proposed, it has been universally accepted around the world that environmental protection requires the participation of the public. As a part of the public, environmental non-governmental organizations are becoming more and more significant both in its position and role in protecting environment due to its characteristics of being professional, public-welfare and grass-roots. Environmental non-governmental organizations were established relatively late in China. However, they have been developing in a surprisingly fast speed, especially because of calls for keeping pace between environmental protection and economic development. Under this sort of policy, environmental non-governmental organizations in China, though nascent compared to those from the developed countries, have already made a considerable progress both in their own development and influence. The reason that caused the difference lies in a lack of a law environment where environmental non-governmental organizations are able to develop themselves and to put their right of participating into use.Dominated by the constitution, our legislation system mainly focuses on law and administrative regulations and places secondary reliance on related departmental and local regulations, and is a law system where the general law and the special law combine. Objectively speaking, with the legislation system of the environmental protection participation of environmental non-governmental organizations perfecting increasingly, and its continual extension of channels of involving as well as its expanding space for engaging, environmental non-governmental organizations have moved forward a big step compared to before, and is in a fast phase of development. Still, a whole lack of validity presented itself in the involvement of environmental non-governmental organizations in environmental protection, concluding from the effectiveness of practicing it.There exists some flaws in the institutions related to the participation of our environmental non-governmental organizations in environmental protection, indicating it is still not mature. Firstly, owing to the restrains of management system of the registration of the carrier units, it determines that environmental non-governmental organization gaining the entity qualification is not easy; secondly, the institution of the revelation of environmental information used to safeguard the participation seems just a little unrealistic; thirdly, the participation system—the most important core system of the involvement of environmental non-governmental organizations in environmental protection—has a serious defect in its institution, as a result of the government taking the initiative all the time in the involvement.To make possible that environmental non-governmental organizations in China play a due role in environmental protection, we should first redefine the legal position of it, and then correct the present rules and regulations connected to non-governmental organizations as well as clarify the nature of it, after that, we ought to perfect the set-up conditions, approval and supervision procedures of environmental non-governmental organizations and so on; on the other hand, the time, scale, method, and effect of the involvement needs to be brought into a good regulation in order to encourage the participation of protecting environment; finally, we should also improve the regulation system of environmental non-governmental organizations and the government.