Chinese environmental group Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology honored 15 individuals and organizations with the annual SEE-TNC Ecological Award on Sunday.

The awards, presented in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy, helped to celebrate World Environment Day. The winners came from all walks of life, including a group of lawyers who helped victims of pollution and call for better environmental legislation, environmental field researchers and Green Watershed, an organization that introduced a green credit policy to China that links bank loans with a company's environmental record.

A special prize was awarded to Nanjing residents, who stopped their government from removing 600 trees for subway construction by spreading the word through microblogs. The award recognizes their "citizenship responsibility" and good "mass campaign" for environmental protection.