But another unofficial study says there are up to two million informal groups of students, farmers or other activists.
Several campaigns have received positive coverage in the state-controlled media, the BBC says.
However, green groups are still closely watched by the government.
An activist told the BBC that intelligence agents sometimes pose as green volunteers to keep an eye on what's going on.
Zhang Jingjing and her boss, Wang Canfa successfully assisted residents of a village in Fujian Province successfully sue a factory for compensation.
The factory was poisoning local crops with chromium.
But Ms Zhang sees limits to China's "green political space" because of the clout polluters have with local governments and judges.
"We have no independent judiciary, that is our problem," she says.
Because local officials and judges often side with polluters, the greens see central government as their ally. It's an internal power struggle in China that outsiders rarely see.
Others blame the West because much of the pollution is actually caused by factories which make products for export. The waste generated by "Made in China" products is left for Chinese people to deal with.
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