In September 2006, American Bar Association (ABA) and the Center for Environmental Education and Communications of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) jointly launched “An Exchange Project to Increase Citizen Participation, Accountability, & Transparency in Environmental Decision-Making in China.” The purpose of the project is to help improve environmental governance and decision-making in China by making it more transparent and responsive to citizens’ concerns, and to support the implementation of citizens’ right to know, understand, and participate in government decisions related to the environment in which they live.

The project will bring ten environmental officials and civil society representatives to the United States for six weeks of exchange in June-July 2007, including month-long internships in U.S. environmental protection organizations. All participants are current and potential leaders who are devoted to improving public participation, accountability and transparency in decision-making. During their internships, they will see and write case studies about environmental public participation in action in the U.S. The U.S. hosts will then come to China in 2008 to intern in the Chinese participants’ organizations, toward implementing cooperative follow-on projects. The Chinese and American participants will have the opportunity to share lessons learned through a national conference in China at the end of the U.S. participants’ Chinese internships.

The project consists of the following two phases.
Phase One: U.S.-Based Internship
·The Chinese participants first travel to Washington D.C. for a one-week orientation that exposes them to the variety of U.S. entities and approaches to problems of environmental governance. The initial orientation exposes the entire delegation to the spectrum of government, non-government, and educational institutions that participate in the American environmental governance landscape. The orientation also includes a session on multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism to acquaint participants with the diversity of American political, social, and cultural life.

· Following the orientation, the Chinese participants are paired and placed at one of five U.S. host institutions with reference to participants’ specific substantive area of expertise. The five U.S. host institutions include EPA Region 5, EPA Region 9, California EPA, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Sierra Club. The month-long period of the internship is designed to enable the Chinese participants not just to learn about and obverse, but also to become immersed in, their host institutions’ work, thereby enabling them to develop and exercise new practical skills.

· On completion of the internships, participants convene again in San Francisco for a debriefing session, to reflect on their learning and share their experiences and case studies with the rest of the group.

Phase Two: China-Based Consultations and Training

·In 2008, individuals from the participating U.S. host institutions will travel to China for approximately two weeks. The U.S. participants will first meet with SEPA officials and environmental NGOs for an overview of China’s overall environmental protection system and national needs.

·The U.S. participants will then intern at one or more of the participating Chinese organizations, where they will work with their Chinese counterparts to develop new or refine existing programs that apply skills and tools obtained during the U.S. internship within their own agencies, and to identify and/or create information resource materials for use in training other Chinese environmental leaders on concrete tools for enhancing public participation.

· Finally, a national training workshop will be convened in one of the cities in which a pilot project is underway. The target audience will include environmental officials, NGOs, and other stakeholders from throughout China. The U.S. and Chinese exchange participants will act as trainers of the training workshop.