A Chinese women's organization has won an international
environmental protection prize for promoting the use of clean
energy resources in rural northwest China.
The Shaanxi Mothers Environmental Protection
Volunteers Association, a non-profit non-governmental organization,
won second prize at the 2006 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy
on June 15 for its efforts to promote the use of methane in rural
areas, said Wang Mingying, president of organization.
The organization, founded in 1997, conducted a series of
activities such as tree planting, environmental protection
campaigns, and training rural women in the use of methane, in order
to raise environmental awareness while improving rural living
standards, Wang said.
In 1999, the organization started a program under which rural
women were taught how to raise pigs, then use pig dung to produce
methane and use the byproducts as fertilizer for fruit trees.
It had trained 8,015 women in 105 villages, of whom 1,294 have
established methane generating facilities in their homes, Wang
said.
Using methane, each household can save annually at least 1,500
kilograms of firewood, formerly used in cooking, she said.
The program promoted the use of clean energy, reduced damage to
the environment and changed the lifestyles of local people, said
Wang.
The program proved how China had used local clean energy
resources, said Sarah Butler-Sloss, founder of the Ashden Awards,
adding it set an example for other countries and in the study of
global climate changes.
Founded in 2001, the Ashden Awards encourage the development and
use of renewable energy resources that serve environmental
protection.
Eleven programs in China, India and South Africa won awards this
year.
The Shaanxi association was the sole Chinese winner this
year.
(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2006)