China's 'friends of nature' join the Tibetan antelope on the list of endangered species

Teresa Poole meets the pioneering environment campaigners who face hostility from corrupt officials and death threats from loggers and illegal hunters

AT "FRIENDS OF NATURE", China's only truly independent green pressure group, the environmental cause has suddenly turned deadly serious.

Over in Western Sichuan province, a retired university professor member recently alerted Friends of Nature to illegal logging by local forestry officials in Hongya county. The local authority was brazenly flouting the ban imposed after this summer's disastrous floods. After Friends of Nature tipped off sympathetic national television reporters, the professor was told by the foresters that he would "have to pay back with his head". For safety, he is now staying at relatives away from his home city.

One of Friends of Nature's other big campaigns at the moment is to save the Tibetan antelope from wholesale slaughter by poachers who kill the animal for its shahtoosh fur. Four years ago the government official in charge of the wildlife protection area in Qinghai province where the antelope live was killed in a gunfight with poachers. His successor, Zhaba Duojie, an ethnic Tibetan government official, died of gunshot wounds earlier this month, although his death is thought to be suicide.

Thanks to the efforts of Friends of Nature, such cases now receive high profile coverage in the Chinese media. The organisation has lobbied furiously inside China in recent years to raise awareness of such issues as re-afforestation, the protection of the gold snub-nosed monkey, environmental education in schools, and the plight of the Tibetan antelope. Such an organisation would be commonplace in most other countries, but in China Friends of Nature is arguably the only true non-governmental organisation (NGO), a concept which is virtually a contradiction in a Communist state.

The group started in 1994 and now has more than 500 individual members. Professor Liang Congjie, its president and driving force, said the membership included scientists, professors, office workers, entrepreneurs and even army personnel and policemen. "The big triumph for me over the past five years is to have attracted so many sincere and honest volunteers to join us," said Mr Liang, a retired history professor. On his desk are piles of the letters that he receives daily from people interested in the organisation's work. Mr Liang, who speaks perfect English, met both Bill Clinton and Tony Blair on their recent China tours, wheeled out by grateful embassy officials who were keen to demonstrate that there was at least one independent NGO in China.

In Mr Liang's offices, groups of volunteers sit stuffing envelopes with mailshots about activities and campaigns - an astonishing sight for China. But 66-year-old Mr Liang treads a well-crafted path. "I always choose the battlefield that I am quite sure I can win," he said. On the controversial Three Gorges Dam, for instance, which has been under construction for several years, he said: "Personally I am against it, I am not afraid of saying that openly. But it is too late for us to do anything about it."

Recent events, however, have shown that the supposed "safe" route of promoting causes in line with the government's own environmental policies is by no means a soft option.

In September, the Friends of Nature member in Sichuan accompanied a Chinese Central Television crew to film the

widespread logging that was still going on in Hongya county despite the new central government ban. The prime minister, Zhu Rongji, was said to have watched the broadcast report. "That made him very angry with the local forestry bureau," said Mr Liang. "And that made the local officials very, very angry with us." After threats were made to the retired professor, the police were called in. But the loggers have said they intend to take revenge.

Mr Liang is sympathetic to the problems of local officials who must provide jobs and welfare for loggers who will be left without work. But he is also visibly exasperated at the uphill struggle involved in the implementation of what is often official central government policy. In Yunnan, for instance, where Friends of Nature won a temporary reprieve for the prime forest homes of the gold snub-nosed monkeys, logging is also still going on.

In the campaign to save the Tibetan antelope from extinction, Mr Liang is seeking international support. In response to his letter, Mr Blair replied that he "shared your revulsion over the illegal slaughter". It is estimated that more than 20,000 antelopes are illegally killed each year for the shahtoosh fur, which is spun into gauze-like shawls which fetch thousands of pounds in Europe and Hong Kong despite an international ban on the trade. Each dead animal yields just 125-150 grammes (4-5oz) of the fine throat fur, and photographs provided by Friends of Nature show the mounds of animal carcasses left after the poachers have long gone.

The idea of starting a green NGO to take action on such issues was dreamed up by Mr Liang and some like-minded friends. "We began to think, why don't we do something ourselves? People began to think, is it possible in China, would the government allow us to do that?," he remembered. In 1994 they applied to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which must register all social organisations, but were refused.

However, a second application, as a "secondary" NGO under the Academy of Chinese Culture was approved. "No-one tries to interfere with my work," said Mr Liang. Most of the funding comes from Western foundations and charities.

China has recently published new regulations governing all "private social organisations" include a demand that they submit annual reports to the government, submit to regular inspections of their funding, and uphold Communist Party rule. Such rules are designed to stamp on any overtly political groups, but Mr Liang does not think they will cause him any problems. "I don't think it will affect me in a very substantial way," he said. Mr Liang is the first to admit that Friends of Nature's status is enhanced by his own family background: his father was China's most famous architect, a man who was persecuted terribly during the Cultural Revolution. Mr Liang himself is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Even those connections, however, does not always mean that the message gets through. This summer's epic flooding has finally convinced the central government to do something about deforestation in the upper reaches of China's big rivers.

"We had already warned them," said Mr Liang. "In autumn 1997 we sent a suggestion to the central government saying that if you want to control the water, you have to control the mountains. Unfortunately, this year's floods became a very good opportunity for us to convince people," he said wryly.

So is he hopeful for the future of environmentalism in China? "It is a matter of values, it is a matter of how you behave," he said. "More people are now refusing to use throw-away chopsticks and polystyrene lunch boxes. It is still only a small percentage, but it is a start."