"厦门有着得天独厚的自然环境, 也有一个积极负责的政府. "旅居厦门并把这里当做第二故乡的澳大利亚海洋科学家柯蓝波教授对记者如是说. 然而厦门优美的环境离不开每个市民的日常行为: 60岁的老厦门人现在习惯了废旧电池回收; 厦门大学绿野协会是一个较有影响力和号召力的环保社团, 曾被评为全国十大优秀社团; 鹭岛关爱日活动成功举办了六届, 逐渐深入人心......



My beautiful second home
By Enid Chen

"It's of vital importance that Xiamen, as a SEZ and a coastal city, pays keen attention to the protection of its marine environments so as to foster ecologically sustainable development," said Dr. David Klumpp, an Australian scientist from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Queensland, who also attended the Xiamen International Forum for Coastal Cities.

Currently on a year-long leave from AIMS and teaching at the Environmental Science and Management Department at Xiamen University, Dr. Klumpp has been on frequent visits to Xiamen since 1998. "I came to Xiamen in 1998 to meet Professor Hong Huasheng to discuss possible cooperation in some environmental protection projects. I found Xiamen to be a nice place with friendly people and a relatively good environment compared to other coastal cities in China. I have been here several times every year since then, and I regard it as my second home," he beamed.



"Xiamen is staked with a good environment. However, accelerating industrialization might lead to the decreasing of water quality and place severe stress on aquatic resources in the rivers and seas. Xiamen is lucky to have a proactive government which is committed to the environment, and which acts before problems occur in order to make Xiamen a better place. It has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in harbor environmental health and protection."

"As a marine scientist, I will be delighted to contribute to the efforts of the local government here," revealed Klumpp who is now seriously considering settling down in Xiamen permanently.

 

 

Public efforts for public good
By Daisy

"The biggest change regarding environmental protection in the past few years is that we now collect used batteries and recycle them", said Chen Li, a sixty-year old woman and lifetime resident of Xiamen. "We tended to throw batteries away casually at first, but now we are much more used to the idea of recycling," she added.

Chen Li is not alone among the active local residents in the used battery disposal campaign in Xiamen.

According to a study conducted last year, Xiamen residents use a total number of 13,000 batteries annually, most of which are disposed of carelessly. The Xiamen Municipal Government, local environmental protection organizations and last but not least, Xiamen residents, have worked extremely hard to tackle the problem.

In 2001, Xiamen Huli Park contributed to the Battery Recycling Campaign. The activity was well received by locals and triggered public interest.

At the entrance of Xiamen University Library there is now a sign reading "Battery Recycling", along with a container half full of used batteries that stands on the counter.

"Used batteries are harmful to the environment. It's important for everybody to be aware of the ways they deal with them. Throwing out used batteries is your own business. But when this has a negative impact on others, you are responsible for making a change", said Gao Guowei, a senior Biology student at Xiamen University.

"I've heard that pollution caused by used batteries is serious, but I have faith that we can solve the problem with our hearts and hands", said Wei Xinlu, a postgraduate student at Xiamen University.

 

 

Caring the island
Translated by Merry

When it comes to the honors that Xiamen has received, local people will give you an endless list: the Habitat Scroll of Honor Award, China's Outstanding Tourist City, National Hygienic City, National Model City of Environmental Protection, to name but a few.

However, local people never rest on the laurels; instead, they are determined to make the Island of Egrets even more beautiful. The Island Care Day which was launched five years ago is a privately organized environmental protection event. Jon Oliphant, a foreign friend of the local people suggested organizing an annual large-scale environmental protection community service event. His suggestion triggered enthusiastic responses from a number of domestic and foreign environmental protection volunteers, who, after intense preparation and organization, launched the first "Island Care Day Initiative" in March 2000. The initiative is gathering greater momentum today, and has been successfully held for six consecutive years. Today, ICD is an important festival in which local people show their care for the environment; it plays an important role in raising public awareness of environmental protection and promoting green consumption and an ecological lifestyle.

Xiamen Daily supports the "Island Care Day" activities each year and covers ICD events extensively in the newspaper. For example, the newspaper covered the "April 22 No-vehicle Action" of the ICD of this year in great detail. In addition, Xiamen Daily hosted a series of activities such as solicitation of essays and photographic works on environmental protection, an environmental protection forum, round-the-island cycling, garbage collection, and a large-scale environmental protection gala.

Volunteers collecting rubbish on the beach

 

 

Green dream
By Daisy

"Green represents love, life, hope and harmony; while wild denotes nature. The Greenwild Organization is home to lovers of life, nature and voluntary environmental protection work," as interpreted by Chen Sixing, the current leader of Greenwild, which has been nominated as one of China's top ten environmental protection organizations.

Founded on September 16th, 2000 at Xiamen University, Greenwild has grown into an environmental protection NGO with 489 members in just five years.

Since Greenwild's foundation, the organization has promoted several fruitful environmental protection campaigns, namely, the Fujian fishery and oceanic pollution study in 2001, mangrove allocation study in 2003, and the water pollution study in Ningde in 2004. Recently, they have been focusing their attention on mangroves. "Mangrove is a common name applied to several kinds of tropical flowering plants. They are like a sea forest. They are indeed very beautiful plants," said Chen.

As part of the CMPP (China Mangrove Protection Project), they launched a project to build a beautiful garden this May by investigating the local mangrove situation and collecting rubbish left in mangrove habitats.

"We expect to wrap up the project in five years. It will be hard to start with. We need to propagate mangrove knowledge and arouse public interest. But I am optimistic, because we are going to overcome all difficulties with the Greenwild spirit, and we'll popularize our slogan: Lean our ears to the wild, and pass on the green dream."

 

Vocabulary
marine 海洋的
accelerate 加快
trigger 激发
denote 意味
picturesque 风景如画