On April 4th 2009, the Third China Green Long March (GLM)  kicked off. Claiming to be China’s largest youth conservation movement, GLM engaged over 10,000 student environmentalists, governmental leaders and environmental scholars will participate in this grand event this year.

The GLM project is co-organized by an NGO, the Future Generations China and Beijing Forestry University. Founded by Dr. Daniel Taylor in 1989 and registered as an NGO in Hong Kong in 2007, Future Generations China is affiliated with Future Generations in West Virginia.

The “Green” Long March is a direct reference to the legendary Long March of the 1930s, where over 200,000 Red Army soldiers braved bitter conditions to hike nearly 13,000 kilometers through 11 remote provinces to win the Chinese revolution and hand over China to the Communists. “I thought of sustainable development, physical activity, and China’s youth, and it all came together in this concept of a long march for sustainability, for a new green China.” said Frances Fremont-Smith, the executive director of Future Generations China.

Early in 1980s and 1990s, Future Generations focused on community-based conservation, development and protected-area management in Tibet and provided both professional and local-scale training on health care, public health, nature protection and income generation. As time goes on the breadth of its programs has grown to include youth environmental education and future sustainable development in rural China.

This time, the GLM seeks to lead positive action around how we produce, use and conserve energy, covering a wide range of projects from construction of green universities, promotion of natural gas as energy source in Guang Dong Province and promotion of energy-saving water filtration system in the re-built communities in Si Chuan Province after last year’s disastrous earthquake.

To make the GLM a success, Frances Fremont-Smith has prepared together with representatives from Beijing Forestry University for a long time. They worked out the annual calendar, the appropriate trainings, the topics of forums and the actual routes of the March. The overall goal of GLM is to set up a platform for student environmental groups to sound a voice, to reach people directly from village to village, to affect change at the community level, and to reflect deeply towards the future of the country. Additionally, Future Generation will send two of its volunteers to each of the designed routes for guide.

Organizers are trying creative and diverse approaches to get local companies involved in sponsoring the March. Thanks to Future Generations China’s continuous efforts, the number of major sponsors increase from 2 in 2007 to 7 this year, including Goldman Sachs, Swire Pacific Limited., Starbucks, etc. “If local companies can get involved in the Green Long March and see the benefits of sponsoring these types of activities, this will open up opportunities for additional sponsorships in the future.” argued Fremont-Smith, who is ambitious to elevate the influence of the GLM and nurture a brand name. The “Government – Education Institutes – NGO Organizations – Corporations” Four-Parts Cooperation Model applied to the GLM by Future Generations China has symbolized a enduring growth of civil society in China and could bring profound thoughts to the NGOs in China on how to align the diverse resources and powers of entities toward national priorities under the obstacles of scant funding.

Over the past two years, Green Long March volunteers across China have looked into urgent regional issues such as water quality, green agricultural practices, elimination of plastic “white” pollution and promotion of the “Green Olympics”. Participants traveled a cumulative some thousand kilometers, covering 22 provinces all over China, 26 natural reserve zones and more than 500 rural communities. Over 1,000 students engaged in 2007 and the number rose to 5,000 in 2008. More than 80 local, national and international media reported on. More excitingly, one newsreel featuring the first GLM, “The Road Ahead”, Wins Best International Doc at Queens International Film Festival, 2009, making its name known to the whole world.

All materials, books, video, pictures and research papers gathered along the routes have been gathered and will be posted on an online database and information-sharing network of Yahoo. “This database will represent one of the largest data sets ever collected of environmental success in the country,” says Fremont-Smith. The approach is adapted from Future Generation’s “Seed-Scale” methodology, which enables positive examples from one community to expand quickly to other communities while remaining sensitive to the local social, economic, and ecological context.

Standing on the solid road paved from former years and at the turn of the 60th. anniversary of nation founding and the 30th. anniversary of Open-Door Policy, the Green Long March in 2009 will develop a series of campaign and practical activities surrounding the topic of seeking new sources of energy and building new rural areas. Undeniably China has witnessed a skyrocketing economic development in the past decades, but the depleted resources and ecological capacity are no longer sufficient to support the current industry structure. The pattern of growth and consumption should be transformed into a sustainable way. According to the history of developed countries, the theory of Environmental Kuznets curves (EKC) has been inducted, which indicates that pollutants emission tends to increase over time while the economy is booming, then after a critical point of average income is attained, begins to decrease. Therefore, it is challenging and meaningful to know whether the development of rural area in China can jump out of the curve, balancing economy and environment without repeating the common wasteful inverted U pattern.

This summer, students will form teams to walk along 10 routes during a period of 20 days, for instance, the Rainforest Exploration, Gold Coast, Yangtze River, Grand Canal, Yellow River, Northeastern Forest and Grassland Rambling. Along the routes, students will survey on residents about environmental issues, promote the use of new energy sources, report successful cases of energy saving and conduct awareness training sessions.

It is not difficult to make impacts as long as the first step is set for the March, and there are ways that foreign students can participate in. Foreign students are welcome to join in 6 of the total 10 routes. The Future Generations is looking for someone who is healthy, adaptable, reliable, and passionate for the environment issues. Some understanding of Chinese language and of the environmental situation in China is highly recommended. Donation will be an alternative manner to get involved. Students are expected to arrive in Beijing by the end of June to receive some training. The actual March will take place in July and August. Those who are interested can find the application form on the links given below after Apr. 10th.

Compiled by Yongmei Shen