Due to the nature of incentives that drive sub-national Chinese government officials to act, environmental protection often loses to the more attractive goal of economic development. Recognizing the need for an alternative to state intervention, the state has turned to non-state actors to carry some of the environmental protection burden. Focusing on one expression of the non-state community, this paper explores the capacity of public organizations, in the form of environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to compensate for declining central government influence and shifting local government priorities regarding environmental protection.
