NHK program about environmental problems in China

I did a program this week for NHK World about environmental problems in China. The program discusses some of the recent solutions, including an environmental tax on wood products to curb deforestation:

"Disposable chopsticks fashioned from wood have spread in China in recent years. Some 45 billion pairs are produced in a year. However, it means some 2 million cubic metres of forest are chopped down each year in China for disposable chopsticks."

90% of all disposable chopstics here in Japan are produced in China. NHK interviewed professor Wang Tsanfa, the Director of the Institute of Environmental Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, who said the destruction of forests has not abated because the legislation isn’t being properly enforced.

Non-government organisations in the form of private environmental groups are also trying to foster solutions, drawing people’s attention to the fact that environmental degradation is an issue that directly concerns them.

NHK talked to the Global Village of Beijing, an NGO based in Beijing. The group has been engaged in environmental conservation at the community level, encouraging local people to take part in its activities. The group has been urging people to take their own chopsticks with them when they go to eat out. They are also encouraging people to gather up and recycle the used disposable chopsticks.

(Photo: WWF China)