Jiangsu appoints environmental guardians

Jiangsu Province has officially appointed 624 activists as the first group of environmental guardians, the provincial environmental protection department said at the first Jiangsu Environmental Guardian training session on November 10th, 2017, thepaper.cn reported.

[File photo: Xinhua/Zhang Rufeng]

The guardians have a good sense of teamwork and come from all walks of life including journalists, lawyers, bank executives, as well as school teachers and students. Their age spans from 15 to 69.

While directly getting involved in the management duties, environmental guardians will play active roles in a number of other areas including practicing and promoting a green lifestyle, regularly observing and recording the status of and changes in the local environment, supervising pollution prevention measures, and making sure that businesses abide by the environment laws.

At the same time, they will provide environmental protection departments with suggestions and assist government departments to effectively resolve environmental conflicts and disputes.

Environmental guardians are instructed with professional monitoring and basic skills at a training session in Jiangsu Province on November 10th, 2017. [Photo: szdushi.com.cn]

The environmental guardians located around the province will send related pictures, video, text, and location information to the environmental protection bureau through its app. Using the information management system, environmental guardians will have dynamic exchanges with all levels of environmental protection departments, who will then analyze and reply.

The system can also ascertain the guardian's "work performance" in a multi-dimensional way. The guardian with a poor sense of responsibility and low activity will be disqualified, while those with excellent performance will be rewarded.

"I am pleased to be an environmental guardian. This practice is not for show," Dai Yuhua, an environmental guardian from Nanjing said at the training session, adding that the responsibility is great.