On 14 December 2012, SGP China received the 2012 National Public Welfare Figure Prize of Water Protection for its efforts to support local NGOs in the protection of international waters, by reducing land-based pollution and restoring and protecting coastal habitats in China. The National Public Welfare Figure Prize of Water Protection is an annual award presented by China Foundation for Glory Society and Beijing Normal University. The award was established since 2010 to acknowledge great contributions in water protection by outstanding public organizations, individuals and university student groups to help the public understand the current situation and issues on water protection.
The selection process started since March 2012 and included a series of site visits and interviews to over 100 candidates. As a result, 10 organizations and individuals and 9 university students groups were selected as the winners of the award. In particular, the award to SGP China is recognition of its international waters portfolio as an efficient mechanism to support local NGOs and communities to demonstrate community-based approaches to protect water and coastal habitats.
SGP China started in 2009 and since then it has supported five projects on international waters including three on going projects: one on ecological aquaculture as a method to reduce land-based pollution, other on the Seagrass Special Protected Area in Lingshui Xincun and Li'an Harbor and one project aimed at the restoration of the Mangrove Forest in the North Bay of Guangxi. These five projects have involved 19,770 local people and benefited 4,345 people directly.
An example of the work supported
by SGP is a project on research and control of land-based pollution in the coastal area of Dalian that ended in January 2011. With the support of SGP, the Dalian Environmental Protection Volunteers Association organized volunteers to clean litter on the beach and on the surface of the sea every weekend during the implementation of the project; and engaged professional divers as volunteers to clean litter underwater. Other key activity of the project was the establishment of 30 field research sites along the Dalian coastline so that trained volunteers can collect pollution data to be published on their website.
In addition, the NGO held a big clean-up event along the Dalian coast on environment day and after an oil pipeline explosion accident at a Dalian port.
The project engaged over 8,000 volunteers who contributed 22,630 hours and cleaned up 11,590kg waste along the Dalian coast. As a result, 1,906 kilometers of the Dalian coastline are now under regular monitoring and protection by the community and the achievements of this project have been acknowledged by the local government by providing US$50,000 to continue the work started by SGP.
Other SGP project supported the conservation and sustainable management of the coastal wetlands in Techeng Island, Zhanjiang. The project finished in 2011 and established a wetland management committee to ensure the sustainable management of the coastal ecosystem of the Island. The committee includes the local government, academic institutes, NGOs and local communities of Techeng Island. Through this project, 30 hectares of mangrove, 2 hectares of sea grass bed, and 30 hectares of a coastal forest belt are being conserved. In addition, 2 hectares of an integrated mangrove-aquaculture system were established, enhancing 10% aquaculture production and reducing 10% aquaculture pollutant discharge. As a result, 300 people gained
awareness and knowledge on wetland and mangrove conservation and the memories of a conference on wetland and mangrove conservation were published.
The other three on-going SGP projects have raised public awareness on water protection, improved the conservation of coastal habitats and leveraged resources from local governments, academic institutes, the private sector and other communities to improve cross-sector cooperation on water issues. Partnerships among a wide range of stakeholders to solve water issues have been established.
The award is a recognition to the work of SGP China on international waters, the consolidated impact of its projects, and their potential to be replicated and further scaled up.