The bridging role of domestic NGOs in China’s International Environmental Cooperation

6000

China's growing engagement with global environmental governance, framed by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the ecological civilisation agenda, has created new spaces for the civil society. This project examines how Chinese environmental NGOs (ENGOs) "go out," moving from domestic environmental supervision to cross-border cooperation, and the bridging role they play in connecting diverse stakeholders across national boundaries. Through background research, literature review, and a case study of Lvse Jiangnan, a Suzhou-based civil NGO (CNGOs) conducting environmental projects in Laos and Thailand, we investigate how domestic NGOs build transnational ties through environmental protection, knowledge exchange, and community engagement, and how Chinese civil society in the Yangtze River Delta participates in transnational environmental governance.

This research suggests that certain Chinese ENGOs develop overseas environmental cooperation with substantial organisational autonomy, while relying on trust-based relationships with governments and local communities. Their role extends beyond “going out” to providing environmental solutions and “welcoming in” through knowledge exchange, creating people-to-people connections across borders. Future research should examine more cases to study whether and how similar practices of Yangtze River Delta ENGOs going global are shaped by different organisational resources, government relations, and local partnerships across countries and projects.