Wang Yongchen, co-founder of the Chinese organization Green Earth Volunteers, was awarded the 2004 Condé Nast Traveler Environmental Award in November. Wang, who is also a journalist, was recognized for her work in organizing an unprecedented public campaign against plans to build 13 dams on the Nu River. That campaign resulted in an April 2004 decision by the Chinese government to suspend the project to allow more study of its potential effects.
The 1,750 – mile Nu River, in southwestern China, is one of Asiaís last pristine waterways. The Nu flows through areas of legendary beauty, including a region known as “China’s Grand Canyon”. The Nu watershed is home to more than 7,000 plant species, more than half of China’s animal species, and some 22 ethnic minority groups, including the Lisu, Nu, Drung, and Tibetan peoples. While dam proponents claim that the dams would alleviate poverty in the region, critics point out that the removal of 50,000 indigenous people from their homeland will “decimate local communities and destroy their unique cultures”.
Global Greengrants Fund has awarded several grants to Green Earth Volunteers, the most recent in November of 2004 to support socially and environmentally responsible development in the Nu and Jinsha river basins. The group was recommended to us by International Rivers Network.
Runner-up for the Condé Nast Award – William Kostka of the Conservation of Society of Pohnpei in Micronesia – is also a Greengrants grantee.
Condé Nast Traveler: The Nu Guard
Interview with Wang Yongchen in IRNís World Rivers Review (see page 10)