New York -- The General Secretary of the Amity Foundation, a Christian humanitarian agency in China, says that while China looks as though it is thriving, major environmental concerns are detracting from development.

"The cost [to the environment] is more than China's gross domestic product," Amity General Secretary Zhonghui Qiu said in a December 2007 visit to global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS). "Because the economy has been developing fast and people want to continue this, there is great pressure on the government to develop the economy. However, there is an imbalance in social and ecological development."

Many of China's cities are among the most polluted in the world. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, China's major environmental problems include water pollution, desertification and greenhouse gases. China suffers from the twin problems of water shortage and water pollution. About one-third of China's population lacks access to clean drinking water. Desertification in China results in a loss of about 5,800 square miles of grasslands every year, an area roughly the size of Connecticut.

China is poised to become the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, overtaking the United States as the globe's leading source of carbon emissions by 2009, according to the International Energy Agency. To address this issue Amity has created programs to meet the physical needs of the poor while tackling environmental concerns.

Programs such as a CWS-supported bio gas project have reduced deforestation while creating an alternative fuel source. Bio gas results from the conversion of animal and human waste into fuel, which is used to power lights and stoves in rural areas where there is no electricity.

The project has ecological benefits since it eliminates the use of wood in cooking. The wood-burning stoves caused health problems: The intense smoke contributed to lung and eye problems. Bio gas also supports women's development, as less time is needed to cook because gathering wood and tending a fire are no longer necessary. Women have time for other activities, such as developing their own sources of income.

Another part of the bio gas project has been training about animal nutrition. In Chinese tradition, it is widely thought that feeding animals cooked food will contribute to their health and strength. Through the training participants learn more nutritional ways to feed animals, particularly with fresh food and grasses. This training has reduced the time and energy needed to feed the animals and it has nearly eliminated the use of trees in cooking.

CWS and Amity also work in small-scale river control and management projects. The agencies support dam building and escape ditches to combat flooding.

"Man-made dams and escape ditches are necessary right now to curtail flooding," Qiu said.

While dams can stop flooding immediately, a longer-term solution with more benefits is the reversing of China's pervasive deforestation problem. Trees can slow water flow while absorbing much of the water.

Because China's deforestation is widespread, Amity promotes planting trees, such as fruit trees, which have both economic value and positive environmental impact, which makes them popular with the poor.

Implementing environmental programs has become a major priority for Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In the past five years, more and more ecological NGOs have become active in China. While Amity is not considered an ecological NGO, it partners with others to implement environmental programs including small reservoir construction, grassland improvement, tree planting, infrastructure construction, drinking water improvement, and solar and water energy.

Amity is CWS's only partner with permanent operations in China. General Secretary Qui visited CWS in conjunction with a trip to address a joint Amity Foundation - Asia Pacific Forum meeting in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The result of the joint meeting was a statement affirming the partnership between the Amity Foundation and mainline Protestant churches in North America. Qiu's visit was the first time Amity had a representative at the CWS coordinated forum.