This volume of the China Environment Yearbook is the fourth in the seminal series by China s first environmental NGOs, Friends of Nature. The fourth English translation updates readers on environmentally significant issues of 2008, a year of both tragedy and hope. 2008 was an eventful year that included such setbacks as the Sichuan Earthquake, debilitating snow and ice storms, an algae bloom at the site of the Olympic sailing venue prior to the games, and a worsening global economic crisis. But there were also events that filled the country with optimism, including a successful Beijing Olympic Games with good air quality, the upgrading of the State Environmental Protection Agency to ministerial level status, and significant developments in China s environmental legal system and environmental public information disclosure mechanism. Other topics explored in this volume include marine pollution, wetlands, road ecology, eco-compensation, debates surrounding the newly instituted plastic bag restriction policy, public interest litigation, the concept of a low carbon economy, and the environmental performance of enterprises in 2008. Volume four is essential for those looking for a window into issues affecting China s environment from the viewpoint of civil society.

Yang Dongping is co-founder and vice president of Friends of Nature and professor of education at the Beijing Institute of Technology.
Friends of Nature was the first environmental non-governmental organization in the People's Republic of China, established in 1994 by Liang Congjie, Yang Dongping, Liang Xiaoyan and Wang Lixiong. The organization has more than 3000 active members and has been recipient fifteen prestigious national and international awards.