Partnerships are important to us. PEL excels at linking experienced professionals and academics in the US with Chinese universities in order to facilitate collaborative curriculum development, and faculty and student exchanges that generate scholarship and research on environmental policy issues in China and Southeast Asia. We manage agreements with 16 partnering universities across China through which we facilitate project work and academic exchanges and we have hosted over one hundred institutional delegations and faculty and student exchanges through these agreements. Our current partnering universities include:
- Changsha University of Science and Technology
- China National Prosecutors College
- China University of Political Science and Law
- Fudan University
- Guiyang College
- Kunming University of Science and Technology
- Minzu University
- Ningbo University
- Renmin University
- Shanghai University of Political Science and Law
- Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
- Southwest University of Political Science and Law
- Southwest Forestry University
- Sun Yat-sen University
- Wuhan University
- Yunnan University
PEL also partners closely with the following organizations and institutions:
Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims at the China University of Political Science and Law
The Partnership works closely with the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV) at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) to engage in training of legal professionals in environmental law and strengthening China's environmental governance system. Law professor and lawyer Canfa Wang founded CLAPV in 1998 at CUPL; one of the country's top law schools. The center is officially registered as a civil society organization that operates an environmental legal clinic. CLAPV was influential in pioneering environmental litigation in China. Since its inception, the Center has directly assisted pollution victims in over 210 cases. CLAPV continues to influence China's blossoming environmental NGO movement and build the capacity of China's legal system.
The Environmental and biodiversity law clinic at the Southwest Forestry University (SWFU)
In 2012, PEL collaborated with SWFU to launch the Environmental and Biodiversity Law Clinic (EBLC). Since its establishment the EBLC has provided technical legal services to organizations and individuals across southwest China including NGOs, communities, and underserved and vulnerable citizens seeking to undertake legal action to protect the environment and their natural heritage.
The Southwest Forestry University (SWFU) is affiliated with China's State Forestry Administration and is under the primary supervision of the Yunnan's provincial government. It has a law department that offers an undergraduate degree in law (LL.B degree) and, along with the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, offers a master of laws degree (LL.M) in ecology law. The university has received several awards for its green initiatives.
As the only forestry university in Western China, especially in a region rich in biodiversity, SWFU has the necessary capacity to serve as a resource for advocates as well as government agencies and has potential to influence the development of a legal ecosystem to address the environmental governance and rule of law issues in the region.
The China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
As an expansion of activities, the Partnership has engaged the China Environment Forum (CEF) at the Woodrow Wilson Center as an implementing partner. Since 1997, the CEF has implemented projects, workshops, and exchanges that bring together U.S., Chinese, and other Asian environmental policy experts to explore the most imperative environmental and sustainable development issues in China and to examine opportunities for business, governmental, and nongovernmental communities to collaboratively address these issues. With extensive networks of energy and environmental practitioners in the government, business, non-governmental organizations, and research sectors in the U.S. and China, the CEF will contribute important program support and outreach resources to the program at VLS.