Category Archives: Environment

WSSCC supports hygiene, health and well-being in China

Stockholm, June 25(Greenpost)– WSSCC, a UN organization for water and sanitation has stretched its hand to help Chinese women to pay attention to hygiene and health during their menstrual period.From left to right: Archana Patkar, WSSCC Programme Manager for Networking and Knowledge Management; Ulf Söderström, President SCA Asia Pacific; Kersti Strandqvist, Senior Vice President Sustainability, SCA; and Cynthia Yu, Marketing Associate Director, Vinda International. Photo credit: Ana Caroline de Lima

Some 76% of Chinese women are uncomfortable in a social setting — a dinner with friends or family, for example – while having their period, participants learned today at a special seminar hosted by the global hygiene company SCA and its affiliate Vinda International together with WSSCC.

The seminar, “Hygiene Matters 2014” focused on the findings of a recent survey of the same name and assembled 30 people, including representatives of elderly welfare associations in seven Chinese cities, to the SCA Pavilion in Sanya. The pavilion is hosting a range of events during the two-week stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race in this southern coastal city.

Archana Patkar, WSSCC Programme Manager for Networking and Knowledge Management, discussed the links between hygiene, aging and disability at the Hygiene Matters Workshop in the SCA Pavilion. Photo credit: Ana Caroline de Lima

WSSCC’s Archana Patkar, Programme Manager for Networking and Knowledge Management, was one of three keynote speakers at the event. She joined Ulf Söderström, President SCA Asia Pacific; Kersti Strandqvist, Senior Vice President Sustainability, SCA; and Cynthia Yu, Marketing Associate Director, Vinda International.

Ms. Patkar discussed the links between hygiene, aging and disability. She noted that for men, and particularly for women, there are distinct hygiene-related needs that coincide with the human lifecycle, from birth to old age and including periods of disability, both physical or mental, that most people eventually encounter.

“We must unlock dignity for all people in all the stages of their lives,” said Ms. Patkar. “For women and for men, this means not being afraid to talk about issues linked to childbirth, puberty, menstruation, menopause and old age, including incontinence.” Do public facilities, for example, consider lifecycle differences, she asked, such as lower wash basins which can be reached by wheelchair-bound people?

Kersti Strandqvist, Senior Vice President for Sustainability at SCA, presented results emanating from the 13-country Hygiene Matters Consumer Survey conducted in 2014. Photo credit: Ana Caroline de Lima

Ms. Strandkvist and Mr. Söderström gave global and Chinese results emanating from the 13-country Hygiene Matters Consumer Survey 2014. The survey is designed to glean insights which can be used to raise awareness among decision makers, experts and the general public on hygiene and health, as well as improve the quality of the company’s products, 80% of whom are women.

Ulf Söderström, President of SCA Asia Pacific, revealed that personal hygiene, according to one of many survey responses, was the greatest worry of growing old in China. Photo credit: Ana Caroline de Lima

In China, personal hygiene, according to one of many survey responses, was the greatest worry of growing old – with issues such as elderly incontinence ranking higher than sickness, Mr. Söderström said.

“Compared to other surveyed countries, Chinese people are quite worried of becoming ill due to poor hygiene – more than half of the respondents worry often or always. In China, SCA and Vinda aim to strengthen the possibility of improved hygiene for people everywhere by providing innovative solutions to the market that improve the quality of life for millions of people; from developing professional nursing services to championing elderly education and providing assisted living expertise,” said Mr. Söderström during the presentation of the local survey results.

There are also economic impacts, Ms. Strandkvist revealed. As people live and work longer, untreated incontinence reduces quality of life and causes enormous costs to society by reducing working people’s productivity an average of 12.6 days per year. In addition to this, caregiving relatives lose in average 3.7 hours work per week while attending to their relative. In just Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong, this value loss is estimated at USD 1.7 billion in 2014.

Whether the issue is incontinence or menstrual hygiene, Ms. Yu said the aim for SCA and Vinda International is to “raise awareness about the connection between hygiene, health and well-being, and to strengthen the possibility of improved hygiene for people everywhere.”

Cynthia Yu, Marketing Associate Director at Vinda International, underlined the organisation's aim to raise awareness about the connection between hygiene, health and well-being, and to strengthen the possibility of improved hygiene for people everywhere. Photo credit: Ana Caroline de Lima

Since November 2014, SCA, a leading global hygiene and forest products company, and WSSCC have teamed up in an innovative public-private partnership to break the silence around menstruation for women and girls around the world. In connection with the all-female Team SCA’s participation in the around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race, WSSCC and SCA (a member of the UN Global Compact) are campaigning for greater attention to the issue, as well as hosting educational and training events designed to leave practical skills in the stopover sites.

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, WSSCC, SCA, Vinda International and the Office of Women and Children Affairs of Hainan Provincial Government will conduct a menstrual hygiene teacher training, as well as an educational workshop with school girls in the capital city of Haikou. Photo credit: Ana Caroline de Lima

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the two partners together with Vinda International and the Office of Women and Children Affairs of Hainan Provincial Government will conduct menstrual hygiene teacher training, as well as an educational workshop with school girls in the capital city of Haikou. Similar activities took place last November with The Volunteer Centre, a local NGO, in Cape Town, South Africa, for young girls from local townships.

At any given moment, 800 million women around the world are menstruating, and in many countries, millions of them are left to manage their periods with unhygienic solutions such as cloth, paper or clay, and without access to private toilets, water or soap. Sanitary products like pads are unaffordable or unavailable, and urinary or reproductive tract infections are common. As a result, girls miss valuable days in school, and women are unable to work, stifling productivity and advancement.

Source  WSSCC website

Editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson

WSSCC and SCA help Chinese girls to break the silence on menstruation

The Great Aunt: WSSCC and SCA help Chinese girls to break the silence on menstruation

Stockholm, June 25(Greenpost)–While the girls from countryside didn’t know how to describe their period, girls in the city for example in Beijing got an euphimism for menstruation, that is Dayima or the Great Aunt.

It was true that women used clothes to deal with their period because there was no paper before 1970s in the countryside in China.  Many women who were born in the 1950s and 1960s said they were not aware of it when their period came for the first time.

But now the situation changed for the better. Thanks to SCA and WSSCC program, girls from Haikou got more knowledge about this private matter.

In a safe and supportive environment, thirty girls from Haikou, China, sat down on February 5 to talk with each other and learn from experts about an important but little discussed topic that will impact their lives for the next 40 years: menstruation.

The girls, aged 10 to 12, participated in a menstrual hygiene management (MHM)training session organized by SCA and WSSCC through their public-private partnership on the issue. The training session was supported by the General Office of Women and Children Affairs of Hainan Provincial Government, as well as Vinda International, one of China’s largest tissue companies. The training took place at the Hainan Provincial Population and Family Public Service Center.

SCA and WSSCC have entered into their collaboration aiming at breaking the stigma and silence that surrounds menstruation.

At any given moment, 800 million women around the world are menstruating, and in many countries, millions of them are left to manage their periods with unhygienic solutions such as cloth, paper or clay, and without access to private toilets, water or soap. Sanitary products like pads are unaffordable or unavailable, and urinary or reproductive tract infections are common. As a result, girls miss valuable days in school, and women are unable to work, stifling productivity and advancement. In China alone, estimates are that there are some 350 to 400 million women of menstruating age.

In the MHM session, local women trained by WSSCC taught the girls about their bodies, the importance of good hygiene during menstruation and to feel pride in what happens naturally every month. The local women were given a full day of pre-training on Feb. 4 , which will enable them to continue to spread the knowledge and achieve sustainable change.

“The health and well-being of a nation is very much connected to the health and well-being of its women and girls,” said Chen Jinling, Deputy Director of the General Office of Women and Children Affairs of Hainan Provincial Government. “We are happy to support this workshop, which has done much to raise awareness of menstrual hygiene management and has provided nearly 30 girls, and their friends, with very important information for their own futures.”

With the group of women trainers – who included doctors, teachers and community volunteer organizers – and later with the students, the session provided an opportunity to discuss in clear terms what usually is done euphemistically. It was said how the monthly period is often explained away as “the Great Aunt”, or “the thing”, or “my routine holiday”, or “the typhoon”.  Some cultural practices and beliefs in China linked to menstruation include in many places, including Hainan, girls having their period cannot go with their families to worship their ancestors. Or, there are beliefs that they should not go swimming, or eat chocolate (because Chinese traditional medicine suggests that some foods help or hinder the circulatory system, and that sweet foods will make you bleed more).

“Breaking the silence [around menstruation] requires knowledge and leads to real change,” said Archana Patkar, Programme Manager, WSSCC. “Today’s training went very well and it shows that the WSSCC/SCA partnership will leave a positive and lasting imprint for girls and young women in Haikou while also raising awareness of menstrual hygiene issues globally. We’re grateful to the Hainan Provincial Government for welcoming and supporting us in this work.”

Kersti Strandqvist, SCA’s SVP Sustainability described the partnership as a valuable tool to make a difference. “We want to move from well-meaning words to real action. To meet the young girls today is also a means for us to adjust our products and trainings to their needs and strengthen them in their role as women. For us at SCA it is inspiring and motivating when we see how we make a difference in these girls’ lives!”

WSSCC has a multi-faceted approach to menstrual hygiene management, and other equity issues.

Source   WSSCC

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson

MOA posts guideline to develop markets in farm produce’s production places

MOA posts guideline to develop markets in farm produce’s production places

BEIJING, June 19 (Greenpost) – China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) publicized Friday on its website a guideline to develop markets in the production places of farm produce to boost modern agriculture.

The ministry proposed to build by 2020 a large number of marketplaces in advantageous production zones or production areas for characteristic agricultural products to directly serve farmers.

Under the objective, 30 nationwide production place-based markets, 300 regional markets alike and 1,000 field-based markets will be constructed to create a three-layer production place-based markets system for farm produce.

Essence Securities said in a recent report that the Internet is accelerating traditional agriculture’s transformation to modern agriculture and alongside popularization of the Internet in rural areas, E-commerce operators are predicted to hail a market of 460 billion yuan by 2016.

In the future, some stock investment opportunities may appear for related Chinese listed firms including Shenzhen Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. (000061.SZ), Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (002470.SZ), Anhui Huilong Agricultural Means of Production Co., Ltd. (002556.SZ), and Zhejiang Netsun Co., Ltd. (002095.SZ), the broker said. (Edited by Duan Jing, duanjing@xinhua.org)

 

Alg Park in Umea Sweden 瑞典于默奥麋鹿园

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

Stockholm, Sept 27(Greenpost) – From Umeå’s city center to Alg Park, we took the bus and it took an hour. The sceneries along the road is very beautiful, very green and I didn’t feel bus sick. That’s the proof of the beauty.

从于默奥市中心驱车不到两个小时就可以到这个北方乃至全国比较独特的大麋鹿公园。说它独特是因为它已经有19年的历史了,而且是经常向全国各地动物园输送麋鹿种子选手的地方。就是说,别的公园要到这里来购买麋鹿。麋鹿很迷人,但不是任何地方都可以生产麋鹿的。

麋鹿园的主人是父子俩。他们对待麋鹿比对待自己的孩子还要精心。

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The park is natural and big. The only sign is the coffee shop and the museum and an alg head at the gate. The museum holds real samples of bear, alg, various alg’s horns and the skins.

 

The owner of the park is a family of father and son. The father speaks Swedish while the son can speak English. So he gave a good introduction to us about the park.

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“Sami people always raise rendeer, they don’t have alg. Over the years, we have sold more than 100 algs (to various parks). There has always been animal parks which have alg inside. That is not a new thing. But like this, the park is only for alg, we were alone. But now I believe, there are 20 such parks that only host alg. But they don’t keep them tame. They don’t spend time with them. So they always come to us to buy new algs, as long as there is enough space and food, they don’t need to spend time to keep them tame. We sell them.

But sometimes we see that is not working and we don’t sell to them. ” said Daniel.

 

Q: What’s the secret to keep them tame?

A: Just spend time with them. It’s like any animal, you have to spend time with them. I mean when we go inside like this, a lot of children, even though I said don’t cross the fence, everyone still walk behind the fence. So we really need to know them more. I can tell these algs are not in a good mood, we have to go out. Those decisions we need to take sometimes, just because we need to be safe because only one accident is one accident and that is too much of course. And you can never be 100 percent sure. Accidents happens. That is life. But we really try not to have accidents.”

Q: What could happen?

A: They could kick someone. They could get scared, even though they are tamed, by instinct when they feel scared, they could run out of danger. If they see a bear or a woof, their

defence system is to run and escape. If something happens, and one gets panic and begins to run, everyone else will join. And if there is a lot of people, they can be stepped down. Nothing like that has ever happened, but it could happen, even ourselves have to be careful. We try to make it never happen.

 

Q: How old is an alg?

A: 22 years. We run this park for 19 years, so we don’t have more than 19 years old Alg.

They only eat vegetables and grass, tree leaves and so on. We have to carry in the food for them everyday. We could also give them the same food the sami people give rendeer. In the stable there are some pills that is rendeer food. Alg eats from trees and from high up, rendeer eat from the ground, some winters we have some snow, then it gets melt when it is warm, then it is cold again, so the whole winter is covered by ice, it is almost impossible for the rendeer to find their food because they only eat from the ground. So those years are tough for the Sami people. And then they need these extra food for rendeer. The alg eat them almost the same. It is perfect for alg. It is good. They also eat banana and potatoes. They like them, sometimes they even push each other when we put banana into the park. My father trained them to eat bananas.

We have to carry in food. Up there in the park, you can see a line on how high they can reach. Below that sharp line, they eat out everything. So without our feeding them, this is a far small area for them. they need larger (areas).

Mating season

 

Daniel said the algs do not live in group or families, they are individuals. The only time they go together is during the mating season. Then they can go together. Then of course the mother will go with their calves during the first year. After a year, she kicked them away before she got new calves. The mother always goes with her calves. They always have new calves every year. The mating season is in October. And they get the calves at the end of May. Only once a year. They got pregnant about 8 months.

They try once and if he didn’t get the female pregnant, he will try again two weeks later. It is a law of jungle. The strongest alg will get all the females, the weak one doesn’t have a chance. So the stronger one is the happy one, the weak one has no girlfriend.

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It can be hard, they loose weight a lot. They have to do everything themselves. Sometimes it can go wrong. They walk right after they were born. Five minutes they can walk. They have to try because if they can’t stand up, they can’t reach the milk, then they will have to die.

Most animals are like that. They will feed the calf by standing. Unlike the dog or pig who can lie down when breast feeding. It is real law of jungle and those who can fit, survive.

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Alg has lived in different areas. The big and strong ones always survived. Up in the north, it is difficult to live and the strong ones survive. There are more alg in the whole Sweden. But where there is wolf, there is no alg. Alg in the south is smaller because the climate is easier.

China releases draft environment tax law

China releases draft environment tax law

Stockholm, June 10 (Greenpost) — The State Council, China’s cabinet, on Tuesday released a draft law on environment tax for public opinion, which proposes levying tax on air- and water- borne pollutants, solid waste and noise.

The draft law was drawn up by the Finance Ministry, State Administration of Taxation and Ministry of Environmental Protection in a bid to promote an “energy saving, and environmentally friendly” industrial system, according to the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.

The draft law was submitted for review by the State Council last November and will be tabled at the top legislature should it be approved by the State Council. Enditem

Source Xinhua

China Inner Mongolia sets light rare-earth ore mining quota at 59,500t in 2015

China Inner Mongolia sets light rare-earth ore mining quota at 59,500t in 2015

Stockholm, June 10 (Greenpost) — North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region set mining quota of light rare earth ores in 2015 at 59,500 metric tons (tonnes), according to local department of land and resources on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Inner Mongolia set the tungsten concentrate mining quota at 1,500 tonnes this year.

Earlier, China has set mining quota of rare earth ores in 2015 at 105,000 tonnes, unchanged from that in 2014, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR).

Of 105,000 tonnes of rare earth mining quota, the quota of medium-to-heavy rare-earth minerals amounted to 17,900 tonnes, while that of light rare-earth minerals stood at 87,100 tonnes, said the ministry.

The tungsten concentrate mining quota in the country was set at 91,300 tonnes in 2015, according to the ministry. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)

Source Xinhua

RMB23 bln invested in China’s shale gas E&P in 2009-2014

RMB23 bln invested in China’s shale gas E&P in 2009-2014

Stockholm, June 10 (Greenpost) – China had registered 23 billion yuan of accumulated investment in shale gas exploration and development between 2009 and 2014, according to the latest report by China Geological Survey with the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR).

China had 54 shale gas blocks with a total area of 170,000 square km, and 780 shale gas wells had been drilled by the end of 2014, according to the report.

Shale gas developers reported near 500 billion cubic meters of shale gas geological reserves by the end of 2014, including 106.75 billion cubic meters of proven geological shale gas reserves by Sinopec Corporation.

By end-2014, China had 3.2 billion cubic meters of shale gas production capacity with accumulated shale gas output at 1.5 billion cubic meters and 1.3 billion cubic meters of shale gas output in 2014.

In 2015, the MLR would spend 680 million yuan in shale gas survey to guarantee realizing shale gas output targets. China aims to produce 6.5 billion cubic meters and 30 billion cubic meters of shale gas in 2015 and 2020, respectively.

In 2015-2020, China Geological Survey would execute a plan of conducting geological surveys on onshore energy and minerals and carry out a geological survey of shale gas in south China.

China Geological Survey plans to locate 80-100 prospective areas of shale gas and put 100-120 shale favourable gas areas as target regions for shale gas developers. (Edited by Liu Yanan, liuyn@xinhua.org)

 

Source Xinhua

China to invest RMB17 trln in environmental protection in 2016-2020 中国将在13五期间投入17万亿元用于环境保护

China to invest RMB17 trln in environmental protection in 2016-2020

Stockholm, June 10 (Greenpost) – China is estimated to invest over 17 trillion yuan in environmental protection in 2016-2020, according to Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning.

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) would focus on improving environmental quality in compiling national environmental protection plan for 2016-2020, which is expected to be submitted to the State Council for approval in March 2016.

The new five-year plan would add targets on improvement of environmental quality beside existing targets on cut or control of overall emissions, said a report by Economic Information Daily on Wednesday.

The environmental protection plan would involve green economy, nuclear safety, soil protection, biological protection as well as prevention and treatment of water pollution.

China would introduce amount control mechanisms over newly-added industrial smoke and dusts, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), total nitrogen and total phosphorus in 2016-2020. (Edited by Liu Yanan, liuyn@xinhua.org)

Source  Xinhua

Editor  Xuefei Chen Axelsson