By Wang Haiqin & Wang Chaoran

Research Report Vol.18 No.6, 2016

The general public is the initial driving force for world environmental protection, and public participation is the necessary complement to “government failure” and “market failure” in environmental protection. Report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform adopted at the third Plenary Session of the 18th Party Congress have set up an overall plan for how to give full play to the fundamental role of the general public in participating in social management. In 2015, the newly revised Environmental Protection Law has provided the legal basis for public participation in environmental protection. Ministry of Environmental Protection issued Measures for Public Participation in Environmental Protection in order to facilitate the procedure-based and law-based development of public participation. In 2015, China’s Livelihood Survey project team of the Development Research Center of the State Council conducted a door-to-door survey of public concerns about livelihood in eight provinces¹. Public participation in environmental protection is one of the areas in the survey. A total of 12,714 effective questionnaires were collected. Preliminary results show respondents’ willingness and behavior features when they participated in monitoring pollution of surrounding environment. The survey also produces some results about the effect of age, gender, income, education and occupation on their willingness and behaviors.

I.Positive Role of Active Public Participation in Monitoring Environmental Protection

1. The public are more willing to participate in environmental protection

Around 68.1% of the respondents were willing to participate in supervising environmental pollution, while 28.1% chose to “do nothing”, 3.7% said “it depends” (see table below). Previous surveys showed that public participation in monitoring environmental pollution in China was not so desirable. The survey on public environment awareness, conducted by Renmin University of China in 1995², found that 65% of the respondents were reluctant to intervene when they saw someone or some company damaged the environment³; In 2003⁴, it was found that 82.6% of the urban respondents “never took an active part in filing complaints and lodging appeals” to solve environmental problems⁵. It can be seen, in the past two decades, the attitude of the public toward environmental pollution has changed from “passive tolerance”, “turning a blind eye” to “expressing appeals” and “active participation”, which reflects the obviously enhanced willingness of the public to participate.

2. There is a discrepancy between the willingness and action of the public

Generally speaking, although respondents were more willing to participate in environmental protection, only 52% of them took actions, which was 16.1 percentage points lower than the proportion of all respondents who were willing to participate. The group of respondents, represented by this 16.1%, did not take any action because they “wanted to report, but did not know how to do so” (see Table below). It can be seen that shortage of effective channels for the public to participate and lack of basic information prevent the public from turning their willingness into actions. In 2005, a study by China Environmental Culture Promotion Association also found out that the phenomenon of “no action, talk only” in public participation in environmental protection was common. Our survey also found the discrepancy between willingness and action of public participation. However, a positive finding was that more than half of all respondents took actions.

3. It is the first choice for the respondents to report or file complaints to relevant authorities when they participate in supervising environmental pollution

Of the respondents who took actions, 87.4% of them said they “reported or filed complaints to relevant authorities”, and 12.6% said they “directly complained to the polluters”. It is obvious that government was the main channel through which the public express environmental concerns, with only a small number of respondents expressed their appeals directly to the polluting enterprises. The survey conducted by Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2013 found more than fifty percent of the respondents believed government had the most important role in environmental protection, and they had high expectations on the government⁶. In the early days of the world environmental protection movement, the thought that “environmental protection relied on government” was dominant. With the development of this movement, people gradually realize that, although the government is the main player in environmental protection, its efforts alone are not enough. Due to government failure, and the extensive and social nature of environmental protection, it is necessary to have the concerted efforts of both the government and the public. That the public report and file complaints about pollution to government authorities shows the public are playing the role of social supervision, and the governance system with diversified forces for environmental protection is gradually taking shape.

Those who were satisfied with government services were more likely to report or file complaints to relevant departments. A respective 50.7%, 38.8% and 36.5% of the respondents who were “satisfied”, “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”, “dissatisfied” with government services reported or filed complaints to government when they saw behaviors of environmental pollution. The more satisfied with government services, the more trust respondents put on the government, and the more likely the public would work with the government in environmental supervision. Other related studies found residents were more likely to file environment complaints to the government if their complaints and thoughts about environment pollution were taken seriously⁷. All this shows that the interaction between the public and the government is conducive to encouraging the public to participate. However, it is important to see that government channels may not be able to completely meet the demand of the public for environmental supervision. Therefore, even if some respondents are satisfied with government services, they may also file complaints directly to the polluters⁸. If not well regulated and guided, this approach may trigger mass disturbance over environmental issues.

4. Active participation is more likely to result in positive subjective evaluation of environment quality

Of the respondents who reported environmental improvement in recent three years, 69.6% of them were willing to participate in supervising pollution, 56.3% took actions, and 24.8% chose to “do nothing”; In contrast, of the respondents who reported environmental degradation, 65.6% and 41.5% of them were willing to participate and take actions in doing so, respectively, both were lower than those who reported environmental improvement. Particularly, the proportion of action takers dropped by 15 percentage points, and that of those saying they “did nothing” rose by 5.3 percentage points. ...

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