Organisations and individuals concerned about water pollution now have a powerful online tool to learn about the water quality of rivers and lakes in their vicinity and to know the sources of pollutants.

Despite central directives to discourage discrimination against the tens of millions of people infected with Hepatitis B, old habits die hard in Xinjiang where parents are taking legal action against education authorities for barring their children from a coveted educational opportunity, and where a local NGO that broke the news to media has met with a stern response. Chang Tianle (常天乐) reports.

Although oceans apart in some respects, social entrepreneurs from the UK and China share common experiences and challenges in their organisations, as they found at a symposium in Beijing on October 18.

A recently published World Bank study of farmers’ associations in China reviews a number of policy experiments that are now culminating in a draft Law on Farmers’ Economic Professional Cooperatives (农民经济专业合作社), which is expected to be released for public consultation before the end of the year, writes Nick Young. But, the authors of the World Bank study warn, although a clear legal framework would be a major breakthrough, local governments should support the development of farmers’ organisations without being tempted to direct or dominate them.

Driven barking mad by information requests from foreign correspondents and researchers keen to investigate environmental or labour rights activism as a manifestation of China’s civil society, China Development Brief thought there must be a better litmus of state-society relations, grounded in the hopes and deeds of ordinary people. Like, say, dog owners. Chang Tianle (常天乐) sniffs out the story.

Over 70 environmental activists and journalists gathered in Beijing on October 11 to attend the launch of an online directory of Chinese environmental NGOs produced by China Development Brief with funding support from the Ford Foundation.

NGOs in China have long strived to improve their relationship with government and influence policy-making in various ways, writes Chang Tianle (常天乐) . Now, as elections for local People’s Congresses are being held, a few NGO leaders have seen this as an opportunity to mainstream themselves.

At a signing ceremony in Beijing today, the government of Norway—which, against the international trend, is continuing to expand its cooperation with China—pledged USD 1 million to support two environment sector projects jointly developed by the UN Development Programme and China’s State Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

So says Jonathon Porritt, a veteran environmental campaigner who now serves as Chair of the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission, and who visited China in late September under the auspices of a UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue. Here, he talks to Nick Young about some of the ideas in his recent book, Capitalism As If The World Matters, saying that although the earth is closer than ever to environmental meltdown, he remains an optimist. He believes the impending crisis will draw people together; that a few progressive corporations really are beginning to get the message and take actions that go well beyond “greenwashing,” and that China is not only critical to global sustainability but also, in some ways, way ahead of Western countries in taking action.

A Shanghai-based organisation that provides support services to China’s growing non-profit sector has set itself ambitious growth targets for the next three years, and is also hoping to enhance non-profit links with business and media.