China's Environment

THE SINOPEDIA SERIES The Sinopedia Series China’s Environment The Sinopedia Series Editorial Board Chief Advisor: ...

Author: Liu Junhui | Wang Jia

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THE SINOPEDIA SERIES

The Sinopedia Series

China’s Environment

The Sinopedia Series Editorial Board

Chief Advisor: Wang Chen Chief Conceptualiser: Wang Zhongwei Executive Producer: Guo Changjian Publisher: Li Xiangping Chief Editor: Wu Wei

The Sinopedia Series

China’s Environment LIU JUNHUI WANG JIA

Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States

China’s Environment Liu Junhui and Wang Jia Publishing Director: Paul Tan Editorial Manager: Yang Liping Associate Development Editor: Tanmayee Bhatwadekar Associate Development Editor: Joe Ng Senior Product Director: Janet Lim Product Managers: Kevin Joo Lee Hong Tan

© 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitalizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at www.cengageasia.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be emailed to [email protected]

ISBN-13: 978-981-4319-75-1

Assistant Publishing Manager: Pauline Lim

ISBN-10: 981-4319-75-9

Production Executive: Cindy Chai

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Printed in Singapore 1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10

Table of Contents Preface

vii

Chapter 1.

The Development of China’s Environmental Protection Movement 3

Chapter 2.

China’s Natural Ecosystem

Chapter 3.

Biological Diversity 61

25

Chapter 4. Control and Treatment of Pollution 81 Chapter 5. Rural and Urban Environment 101 Chapter 6. Index

137

Moving toward a Green Economy

123

Preface Nowadays, environmental degradation has become one of the most severe problems confronted by humanity. This is a global phenomenon. A global consensus has emerged to protect the planet as well as share living space. Since the 20th century, human beings have created an advanced civilization via leaps in science and technology that substantially increased society’s productive capacity. However, one simultaneously finds that resource constraints, environment pollution, ecological damage, and other problems are becoming increasingly menacing. This threatens the survival and development of the human race. People have realized that we must change the approach where we are “at odds with nature” and the conventional mode of development where we “pollute first and treat later,” and try to seek a path of sustainable development wherein society, the economy, and the environment are given their due weight. As a developing country with the largest population in the world, China has a vast expanse of territory and complex natural conditions such as climate and topography. Since late 1970s, China’s economy has been developing continuously and rapidly bringing environmental problems and resource constraints to the forefront. Meanwhile, China’s unique problems related to its large population and natural conditions have pushed China to contemplate the severe challenge it faces in environmental protection. At present, China is at the stage of accelerated development of industrialization and urbanization, a period in which the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection is quite salient. From the 1980s onward, a series of ecological issues, such as water and soil erosion, grassland degradation, desertification, disappearance of biological diversity, and so on, appeared due to the growth of population and over-exploitation of resources. Environmental pollution related to technical progress and ecological deterioration are serious problems in some parts of China: the emissions of major pollutants surpass the environmental carrying capacity; pollution of resources such as water, land, and soil are severe; solid waste, vehicle exhaust, and persistent organic pollutants are increasing. This trend is moving from the cities to the countryside and from the east to the west. The effects are not only due to economic activities and population pressure, but also by climate change and the greenhouse effect that affects the world.

viii

PREFACE

Yuntai Mountain in Xiuwu County, Henan Province. This mountain belongs to the first batch of World Geological Parks.

PREFACE

ix

x

PREFACE

Early in 1972, China sent a delegation to the first Conference on the Human Environment held by United Nations (UN) in Stockholm, Sweden, and realized the importance of environmental protection. As a large, responsible developing country, China has always attached great importance to environmental protection and established it as one of the basis of state policy after the reform and opening up in 1978. Through a series of important strategic measures, China has strengthened its environmental protection measures, curbed the deterioration of the environment, and sought to protect the planet along with governments and citizens of other countries. In the present global context, the environment and development problems in any country and region will become problems for human society. Solving environmental problems in China not only conforms to the development goals of China but also greatly embodies the common benefits that environmental protection confers on all human beings. It is inspiring to see that through the continual and considerable efforts of the Chinese government and its citizens, ecological systems constituting fresh water bodies, forests, grasslands, wetlands, farmlands, and oceans have largely improved; biological diversity is being effectively protected; and the continuity of many rare wild animals, plants, and endangered species has seen improvement. The aggravated trend of environment pollution and ecological damage has slowed down in China; control over the disposal of pollutants in some river basins has met with some success; environmental quality in some cities and regions has improved; the intensity of industrial pollutants has been reduced; and the environmental consciousness of the whole society has been enhanced. China is continuously returning cultivated land to forestry and tree plantation on a large scale. This has greatly increased forest carbon sinks (the capacity of a forest to absorb and store carbon dioxide). Now, China has become the country with the fastest growth in forestry and the largest area of artificial afforestation in the world. The area of artificial afforestation is about one-third of that of the world. In a short span of 2003 to 2008, the forest area in China has had a net increase of 20.54 million hectares. In recent years, China has paid more attention to environment treatment and ecological restoration during resource exploitation, adopting a series of measures to protect and improve the human living environment, considering urban and rural environment improvement as an important part of environment protection, and focusing on solving the issue of pollutants that seriously harm health. China has paid utmost attention to energy-saving and emissionreduction in recent years. Up to the first half of 2009, the per unit GDP energy consumption of China was reduced by 13% as compared with its value in 2005. This equals an emission reduction of 8,000 million tons of carbon dioxide. This is China’s contribution to the global path of environmental protection.

PREFACE

xi

China is also the country with the fastest growth in new energy and renewable energy technology. With ecological protection in mind, China has been developing hydroelectric and nuclear power and has been supporting rural initiatives to adopt new renewable energy resources such as biomass energy, solar energy, terrestrial heat, wind energy, and so on. China ranks first in the world in terms of the installed capacity of hydroelectric power, under construction scale of nuclear power, heat accumulation area of solar water heaters, and solar energy power generating capacity. Through a series of environment laws and concrete implementation measures, China has achieved remarkable results in ecological protection. China is a developing country that formulated and implemented China’s National Climate Change Program early on. China also formulated and revised the Law on the Conservation of Energy Resources, the Circular Economy Promotion Law, the Law on Renewable Energy, the Law on the Promotion of Clean Production, the Forestry Law, the Grassland Law and so on, and considers them as important framework to cope with the environment and climate change. Since 2005, the Chinese government has demonstrated clearly that the scientific concept of development should drive the development of the economy and society by implementing the basic national policy of saving resources and protecting the environment, developing a recycling economy, protecting the environment, speeding up the construction of an energy-efficient and environment-friendly society, and improving the harmonious development of man and nature. This spirit is fully shown in the “11th Five Year Plan Outline for Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China.” In 2007, the 17th Session of the General Assembly of CPC put forward a new and more stringent requirement of developing China on the basis of an affluent society wherein the country’s economy would be ecologically sustainable, its industrial structure and economic growth would revolve around saving resources and protecting the environment, recycling would form a fairly large part of the economy, the proportion of renewable energy sources would witness a large increase, the emission of main pollutants would be controlled effectively, the ecological environment quality would be improved remarkably, and the environmental consciousness of society would be raised substantially. These requirements evolve around governance ideas such as “people oriented” and “harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature.” China is now quickly realizing three changes: moving from an emphasis on economic growth and neglect of the environment to balancing both these aims, placing a greater emphasis on concomitant improvement in the economy and environment, and integrating its laws, economy, technology, and administrative framework to solve environmental problems. China’s approach is to realize sustainable development through the development of clean technology

xii

PREFACE

On December 7, 2009, the United Nations Climate Change Conference was opened in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.

and conservation. This means that China is setting up a new social view of development, a novel means of production, and a new way of life on the basis of extensive and thorough social involvement. At present, environmental consciousness is improving in the Chinese society, and the scope and depth of public participation in environmental protection is constantly increasing. Environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been an important force to popularize environmental education and advocacy encouraging the public to participate in environmental protection measures. Protecting the environment better implies a better tomorrow. In late 2009, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that lasted 12 days in Copenhagen captured the attention of the world. Despite several differences, the trend of wanting to protect the planet will not change. In this conference, the Chinese government restated its own goals that the per unit GDP carbon dioxide emission would be reduced by 40%–45% as compared with that in 2005. This is a serious commitment. Having confronted various difficulties, the Chinese are confident of tackling the challenges that lie ahead.

1

Chapter 1

The Development of China’s Environmental Protection Movement China’s environmental movement began in the early 1970s. The passage of 40 years has helped shape an environmental protection policy system with Chinese characteristics so as to prevent the rapid deterioration of the nation’s environment and form finely tuned environment management and administrative that is based on environmental protection via a legal framework. At present, China considers resource conservation as a basic state policy while developing an economy where recycling is important and where energy efficiency is paramount. Since inception, China’s environmental protection movement has kept in step with the international environmental movement and has always striven for developing international cooperation in the area of environmental protection.

China’s Road to Environmental Protection From the 1950s to the 1970s, problems associated with environment pollution were being noticed in some developed countries. People began to understand the harm that environment pollution does on account of events such as the dense fog in London and the Minamata disease in Japan. At that time, China’s economy was still underdeveloped; however, China’s leaders and some informed individuals had been aware of the importance of environment problems.

3

4

CHINA’S ENVIRONMENT

FYI

F OR YOUR IN F ORMATIO N

MINA MA TA D ISEASE IN JAP AN

Minamata is a small fishing village located at east side of Minamata Bay, Kumamoto, Japan. In 1925, Chisso Corporation built a factory there that used mercury-based catalysts and discharged its waste water into Minamata Bay. In 1956, a strange disease was found to occur in Minamata’s residents. Patients that suffered from a mild version of the disease were rendered inarticulate, were unable to move with ease, would suffer sporadic loss of consciousness, and developed deformed hands and feet. Patients that contracted a more acute form of the disease became unsound in mind and perished. Research indicated that this disease was caused by the large mercury content in the waste water discharged by Chisso Corportion. Minamata disease seriously endangered the health and happiness of the local people. By 2006, 2,265 people had been diagnosed with Minamata disease with most of them succumbing to it.

In early December 1970, when he received guests from Japan, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai particularly asked a journalist who covered Japanese environment pollution for information. He invited the journalist to introduce environmental protection problems to China’s scientific, technical, and administrative personnel. At that time, environmental protection was a novel concept in China, and many Chinese considered environmental protection as only comprising cleaning, garbage disposal, and similar issues. In 1972, the first United Nations Conference on Human Environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden. Although China was going through a really rough time, the government still sent a 40-member delegation to attend this conference. Undoubtedly, this conference proved to be significant in enlightening the Chinese as to the issue of environmental protection. People realized that environmental protection was not an incidental and separate phenomenon but a global issue directly related to the development of the economy and society. Under the personal supervision of Premier Zhou Enlai, China’s first environmental protection conference was held in Beijing in August 1973— a tough start to China’s environmental protection movement. This conference definitely held the view that China also had serious environmental problems. Subsequently, each region organized to solve a series of environmental

Chapter 1

The Development of China’s Environmental Protection Movement

5

problems to which people reacted strongly, including the treatment of water pollution such as that for the Guanting reservoir in Beijing, Baiyangdian in Heibei, the Lijiang River in Guilin, as well as the reduction of air pollution in cities such as Shenyang and Taiyuan. Guilin in China’s Guangxi province is famous for its spectacular natural beauty. However, in the 1970s, many factories were built along the Lijiang River. This resulted in a large amount of sewage being discharged into the river heavily damaging its water quality. In October 1973, Deng Xiaoping, who had just been reinstated, pointed out that if the Lijiang River was not treated, the rapid development of agriculture and industry and the excellent municipal construction would not be able to compensate its deterioration. Thereafter, action was taken

The Lijiang River in Guilin, Guangxi, is surrounded by beautiful scenery.

6


wherein 36 major polluting factories along the river were shut down, and soon clean water reappeared in Lijiang. This was the first significant achievement for the emerging environmental protection movement in China. Thus, the Chinese realized that economic growth must go hand-in-hand with environmental protection, and not come at the expense of the environment. In May 1974, the Environment Protection Leading Group of the State Council, a Class I national environmental protection organization, was formed in China to control environmental pollution by formulating policies, administrative regulation, and standards. In 1975, China put forward its key philosophy for tackling environment pollution, that is, “control in five years and solve in ten years.” Obviously, the Chinese people had not totally recognized the complexities posed by environmental damage. China’s economy developed rapidly after the reform and opening-up policy in 1979. Meanwhile, China’s environmental protection movement was moving to a new stage. In this year, China passed the Law on Environmental Protection (trial implementation). This was the first environmental protection law in China. This signaled the road of standardization and legalization that China’s environmental protection was on. In the 1980s, China was moving forward continuously on the road to exploring environmental protection with Chinese characteristics. In 1983, China reorganized the Environmental Protection Committee under the State Council and issued a series of important environmental policies and procedures as well as significant decisions. At the end of 1983, the Second National Environmental Protection Conference was held to establish environmental protection as the basic state policy. Environmental protection was gradually becoming the consensus of the whole society. In the 1980s, under the reform and opening up and the changes brought about by economic growth, a series of effective environmental management organizations were built at the central and local levels to control the environment effectively based on relevant policies, laws, and plans for environmental protection. As economic growth doubles, the environment quality is still at the same level as during the early 1980s, and the environmental conditions in some areas has even improved. This is a phenomenon of considerable import. In 1989, China held the Third National Environmental Protection Conference and proposed to “strive to develop the environmental protection with Chinese characteristics.” In December of the same year, the Law on Environmental Protection was promulgated officially in China, and it was exactly 10 years since the implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection (trial implementation). During this period, China faced a huge pressure on the environment from a large population. The contradictions between rapid modernization and environmental pollution became more evident and ecological damage became increasingly prominent. Therefore, China proposed that it could not follow the

Chapter 1


7

A coal separating plant in Huaibei, Anhui Province, realizes totally closed production in order to avoid the noise, flour dust, and so on, generated during production.

old path of “pollution first, treatment later”—the norm in the developed countries. Rather, it would coordinate the development of economic construction and environmental protection, that is, promote economic development by virtue of environmental protection and promote environmental protection by virtue of economic development. In this period, China launched a series of theoretical, policy, legal, and administrative constructs regarding environmental protection, and gradually developed and perfected a system of environmental protection policies with Chinese characteristics. Meanwhile, China also conducted largescale industrial and urban pollution treatments, preventing a sharp deterioration in the environmental conditions of the country. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, based on the practice of environmental protection, China gradually formulated three environmental policies, namely, “putting prevention first, combining prevention with treatment, and conducting comprehensive treatment”; “making the offender responsible for treating the pollution generated”; and “strengthening environmental management.” Among these policies, the policy of “putting prevention first” was the basis of China’s environmental policies. On the basis of these criteria, China formulated a number of systems to protect the environment, such as environmental impact assessment system, sewage discharge/charging system, com-

8


FYI


PEOPLE WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO CHINA’S ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION MOVEMENT

Qu Geping (the first director of State Environmental Protection Bureau, and director member of the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of National People’s Congress of China) Pan Yue (deputy minister of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection) Liang Congjie (founding director of Friends of Nature) Ma Jun (from the Chinese Public and Environment Research Center, where China’s first water pollution commonwealth database was developed) Wang Canfa (Environmental Laws Professor at China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) and founder of the Pollution Victims Legal Assistance Center at CUPL) Lin Shaozhong (deputy secretary of the CPC Committee and deputy director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau) Wang Yongchen (journalist at the Central People’s Broadcasting Station, and founder of “Green Home Volunteers,” a folk environmental protection organization) Tang Xiyang (founder of the University Students Green Camp and a famous author on environmental protection issues) Jassan Suonandajie (founder of the Kekexili National Nature Reserve and the first county CPC committee secretary for the protection of wild animals) Liao Xiaoyi (founder and director of Beijing Earth Village Environmental Culture Cente Source: www.people.com.cn

prehensive urban environmental improvement examination system, sewage discharge permit system, deadline treatment system, and centralized pollution control system. Further, it formulated a series of specific supporting provisions and measures. These systems and measures together constituted a relatively complete environmental management system. During this period, China vigorously promoted the formulation of environmental laws and rules, and passed four pollution control laws: Law on Environmental Protection, Law on

Chapter 1


9

the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution, Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, and Law on the Protection of Maritime Environment, in succession; a batch of resource protection laws; and hundreds of administrative regulations and local regulations. In 1988, China established an independent National Environmental Protection Bureau which mainly undertook the supervision of the implementation of the laws and regulations. In 1992, China began to implement a socialist market economic system, which was a qualitative leap in the reform and opening-up policy of China. In the same year, the Conference on Environment and Development was held by the United Nations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. China sent a large delegation to attend the conference and made a significant contribution to the success of this conference as a large developing country. At this conference, one of the important pioneers and founders of the environmental protection movement in China, Qu Geping, was awarded the “Sasakawa International Environmental Prize.” This award represented international recognition for China’s environmental protection movement. Later, China formulated and in March 1994, adopted the China Agenda 21—China’s 21st Century Population, Environment, and Development White Paper, placing sustainable development as the guiding principle of China’s long term development. In 1997, “sustainable d e v e l o p m e nt” w a s i m b i b e d i nt o the national development strategy. Since then, environmental protection in China stepped onto a new stage of development and growth. This shift has meant that China’s environmental protection movement has transformed from a simple pollution treatment to a comprehensive environmental treatment and ecological construction program. With regard to pollution treatment, based on the general treatment of all places across the country, China focused on cleaning up some of the big rivers and lakes like the Huaihe River, the Haihe River, the Liaohe River, Taihu Lake, Dianchi Lake, and Chaohu Lake, and started the air pollution treatment in Beijing and the pollution treatment of Qu Geping, one of the main pioneers the Bohai Bay sea area. As early as 1996, and founders of China's environmental China shut down more than 60,000 protection cause, now acts as the enterprises responsible for serious polpresident of the Chinese Environmental Protection Foundation. lution—this was unprecedented. The

10


proportion of environmental protection investment in GDP rose year-on-year gradually approaching the levels attained in developed countries. During the “10th Five Year Plan” (2001−2005) period, China’s investment in environmental protection exceeded RMB 700 billion. Investment in environmental protection in 2004 accounted for 1.4% of the GDP which is expected to double during the “11th Five Year Plan” (2006−2010) period attaining a value of RMB 1,375 billion. This would amount account for 1.6% of the GDP in the same period. With regard to ecological reconstruction, China implemented some policies and measures such as “fencing for afforestation,” “returning farmlands to forests,” “returning farmlands to lakes,” and “returning farmlands to grasslands,” and started the natural forest protection project. It also carried out soil 100 million RMB 5,000

4,000

3,000

2,146.7

2,000

1,367.4

542.6

552.4

1,801.1

640.1 460.5

1,000

308.1

458.2 1,289.7

1,140

1,314.9

1,467.8

458.7 767.2

0

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Investment in environment protection components for “Three simultaneity” construction projects Investment in industry pollution source treatment Investment in urban environmental infrastructure

Source: National Environmental Statistics Bulletin, Ministry of Environmental Protection (former National Environmental Protection General Bureau).

China’s investment in the environmental pollution treatment from 2004 to 2008

Chapter 1


11

The pristine and lush pasture of the Hulunbuir Grassland, Inner Mongolia.

and water conservation actively in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, and other rivers. A large-scale shelterbelt system was also constructed in the ecologically fragile areas in the north of China, resulting in a magnificent green Great Wall. With regard to resource protection, China implemented strict farmland protection measures to ensure dynamic equilibrium of the total cultivated land. In the offshore waters, a fishing moratorium was implemented commonly to protect marine fishery resources. With regard to mineral resource protection, a number of small mines with backward mining equipment that was causing severe damage to resources were retooled or rectified. Besides, China actively carried out comprehensive utilization of solid waste and recycling of waste materials. The ecological environment in China is in an active recovery period.

12


While formulating a legal system that protects the environment and resources and ensuring the strict enforcement of these laws, China also mobilized the general public to take part in the environmental protection movement, and fully carried out public opinion campaigns on environmental and resource protection. Since 1993, China has been launching a project called “China Environmental Protection in the New Century”—a large-scale environmental protection campaign. This project mobilized a number of news agencies in the country to investigate and report on a specific theme each year. Through continuous improvement, the theme of this project tended gradually from individual case supervision to propaganda around collective legislation and supervision, from exposure to environmental pollution and ecological damage to discussion of complex and challenging future issues. In 1993, the theme of “Chinese Environmental Protection in the New Century” was “Declaring War on Environmental Pollution,” and in 1999, it was “Love Our Yellow River.” In 2008, it became “Saving Resources and Protecting the Environment,” and in 2009, it was “Let the People Breathe Fresh Air.” From the evolution of the themes of this project, we can see that the road of China’s environmental protection cause was simultaneously difficult and fruitful. “Chinese Environmental Protection in the New Century” played a very important role in promoting China’s environmental legislation, public participation in environmental protection, and ecological urban construction. In 2005, the “Suggestions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 11th Five Year Plan of National Economic and Social Development” put forward the notion that the mode of economic growth must be flexible in order to fully implement the scientific development view: “make saving resources as a basic national policy; develop a recycling economy; protect ecological environment; accelerate the construction of a resource-saving and environment-friendly society; and promote economic development with harmony between population, resources, and environment; promote the informatization of the national economy and society; effectively take a new road to industrialization; adhere to conservation development, clean development, and safe development; and achieve sustainable development.” This spirit was fully reflected in the “11th Five Year Plan Outline of National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China.” In 2007, the 17th National Congress of CPC put “changing the mode of growth and consumption pattern,” “treating environmental pollution,” and “restoring ecology” on an unprecedented important position, reinforcing the governance philosophies such as “people-oriented” and “harmonious coexistence of human beings and nature.” China chooses a development mode that relies on recycling and grasps the crucial complexities and nature of environmental problems. China’s environmental protection movement will set sail in this direction, gradually abating, even eliminating, environmental problems whilst promoting economic and social development.

Chapter 1


13

In July 2005, the journalist team of “China Environmental Protection in the New Century” reported the water pollution treatment situation in Danjiangkou Reservoir Area, Hubei Province.

For China, 2008 was unusual, both in a positive and negative manner. While struck by natural disaster, the achievements of China in fighting against the Wenchuan earthquake and other natural disasters and in protecting environmental quality during the Beijing Olympics impressed the world considerably. In facing the aftermath of the Wenchuan earthquake, China successfully completed the emergency response work. During the Beijing Olympic Games period, Beijing’s air quality reached its best level in 10 years: not only was the everyday air quality good, but it also reached an excellent level in 10 days.

Environmental Protection Organizations and Environmental Legal Governance In 1973, China held its first Conference on Environmental Protection and reviewed and passed its first environmental protection document— “Concerning the Protection and Improvement of the Environment.” After

14


this meeting, the State Council Environmental Protection Leading Group and Office was established, which was the first environmental protection organization in China. For more than 30 years after that, the environmental administration organization underwent many changes, and its functions were strengthened continually. In 1982, the State Council revoked the State Council Environmental Protection Leading Group and Office and set up the Environmental Protection Bureau under the Ministry of Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection. However, in practice, this department had difficulty in coordinating with other departments and localities. In 1984, the State Council established the Environmental Protection Committee, to assist the Environmental Protection Bureau in coordinating activities and to help it break through the organization’s limitations. In 1988, the State Council carried out institutional reforms again, and the Environmental Protection Bureau separated from the Ministry of Construction and became a vice ministerial unit directly under the administration of the State Council. In 1998, the State Council streamlined the government organs and revoked a dozen industrial administrations. However, the National Environmental Protection Bureau was promoted as the National Environmental Protection General Bureau, becoming a ministerial level unit directly under the State Council. It was positioned as a legal enforcement and supervisory body, and its functional areas included pollution prevention and treatment, ecological protection, and nuclear safety supervision. Therefore, its administration functions were strengthened. In 2005, the National Environmental Protection General Bureau strengthened the law’s enforcement capabilities, adopted a series of proactive initiatives, and overcame an “Environmental Protection Evaluation Storm.” These measures then became a new mechanism: through the “green accounting of the national economy” (commonly known as “green GDP”) and “strategic environmental evaluation,” the National Environmental Protection General Bureau expanded its functions and powers. The National Environmental Protection General Bureau and the National Bureau of Statistics, carried out the pilot “green national economy accounting” project with environmental accounting and investigation of the economic losses on account of pollution in 10 provinces and municipalities including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong, Hainan, Chongqing, and Sichuan. Strategic environmental evaluation refers to evaluating the environmental impact of an engineering project, economic plan, or policy in its decision-making stage in order to control pollution from the source. During this year, the National Environmental Protection General Bureau carried out planned environmental protection evaluation in the river basins

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On March 27, 2008, the former National Environmental Protection General Bureau was renamed as the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China.

of the Nujiang River, the Yalongjiang River, the middle and lower reaches of the Lancangjiang River, and the Sichuan Daduhe River, actively promoting the planned environmental protection evaluation in the key industries of hydropower, coal, ports, traffic and power, and so on, as well as the regional environmental protection evaluation of some chemical industry bases and energy bases. In March 2008, the 5th Plenary Session, the First Conference of the 11th National People’s Congress adopted the organization reform scheme of the State Council, and the National Environmental Protection General Bureau was promoted to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. This meant that the

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Chinese government attached great importance to environmental protection. The functions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection were emphasized and strengthened further, and its main duties included developing and organizing the implementation of environmental planning, policies, and standards; organizing and establishing environmental division; supervising and managing environmental pollution prevention and control; coordinating and solving major environmental problems, and so on. The functional configuration of the Ministry of Environmental Protection was strengthened in four areas: planning and coordination, macro control, legal supervision and enforcement, and public services. Participating in the state’s macroeconomic policy-making became its core function. In order to smoothly achieve the above functions, the newly established Ministry of Environmental Protection needed to resolve many preexisting problems and deal with several challenges such as implementing legally horizontal functional integration and vertical power integration on environmental protection, building an information sharing environmental monitoring system, and strengthening the regulatory power of the environmental protection administrative departments, and so on. While the environmental protection organization strengthened its functions, the environmental protection laws and rules improved gradually. In the 1960s and the 1970s, the Western countries gradually perfected their environmental protection laws and rules. Learning from the experience of the Western countries, China started its own environmental legislation. The Constitution promulgated in 1978 requires that “the country should protect the environment and natural resources, and prevent pollution and other public hazards.” Since the reform and opening up, the legal construction related to the environment and resources has developed rapidly in China. In 1979, China passed the Law on Environmental Protection (trial implementation), and officially promulgated the Law on Environmental Protection 10 years later, which was the basic environmental protection law in China. In the 1980s and the beginning of this century, China established environmental protection and resource conservation as the basis of the national policy in succession, strengthened the legal system for environmental and resource protection, and made tremendous achievements in environmental legislation, environmental enforcement, environmental justice, environment legal supervision, and other aspects. China’s environmental legal system began to move forward in the direction of systematization. In 2003, China promulgated the Law on the Assessment of Environmental Effects, clearly putting forward the environmental rights and the concept of “public environmental rights and interests.” This law requires that “the state encourages the relevant units, experts, and the public to participate in environmental impact assessment in an appropriate manner; regarding those plans

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China Beijing International Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Exhibition, 2009. The staff introduces the development and use of new energies.

which may have adverse environmental impacts and directly concern public environmental rights and interests, the special planning preparation authority should hold a hearing, an evidentiary hearing, or another form to inquire the opinions of the relevant units, experts, and the public on the environmental impact draft report, before submitting the plan for approval.” The promulgation and implementation of the Law on the Assessment of Environmental Effects is of great significance for environmental protection in China. In addition to the Law on Environmental Protection and the Law on the Assessment of Environmental Effects, China also formulated The Law on the Prevention and Control of Solid Waste Pollution, Law on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution, Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, Law on the Protection of Maritime Environment, Law on the Prevention and Control of Ambient Noise Pollution, Law on the Prevention and Control of Radioactive Pollution, and other pollution control laws, as well as a batch of laws in resource protection such as the Law on the Conservation of Water and Top Soil, Forestry Law, Grassland Law, Law on the Protection of Wildlife, Agriculture Law, Law on the Conservation of Energy Resources, and Law on Renewable Energy. In addition, it also formulated hundreds of administrative regulations and local regulations, and more than 800 national

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standards. At present, the Nature Reserve Law is also under preparation. In accordance with the changes in national conditions, the legislature of China periodically revises these laws, and constantly promotes the legal governance of the environment of China, which is an important part of the strategy of “governing the country according to the laws” of China. In 2008, China promulgated the Circular Economy Promotion Law, and the promulgation and implementation of this law provided the most basic guarantee in the law for implementing the basic national policy of environmental protection and resource-saving and establishing a resource saving and environment-friendly society. The Circular Economy Promotion Law expanded the recycling concept to the entire process of social production, circulation, and consumption; therefore, it effectively reduced emissions and opened up new resources for economic development. At the same time, it significantly reduced the production cost of enterprises and the society and increased economic benefits. With the improvement of its environmental laws, China’s environmental legal governance concept has improved tremendously, and the government and the public pay more and more attention to the protection of the environment and resources. In 2008, the National People’s Congress revised the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution in 2008, legalizing “ecological compensation” in Article 7 in the form of law for the first time, so that environmental protection measures and interests protection mechanisms are closely combined. This new revised law also granted the environmental protection authorities the right to decide the deadline for pollution treatment.

International Cooperation for Environmental Protection From 1972 onward, when China sent a delegation to participate in the first United Nations Conference on Human Environment, environmental protection in China has always been an important part of the international environmental protection movement. China attaches great importance to international cooperation on resource conservation and environmental protection. It has concluded or participated in more than 30 international environmental and resource protection treaties such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, Convention on Biological Diversity, ad the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Further, it has actively fulfilled its treaty obligations.

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In 1992, China sent a large delegation to attend the Conference on Environment and Development held by the United Nations at Rio de Janeiro. Before the conference, in order to coordinate regarding the position of developing countries, China invited ministers from 41 countries to have a meeting in Beijing and issued the Beijing Declaration which set out the position and views of the developing countries on the environment and development of the world. This meeting had great international influence. During the Conference, China cooperated with the Group of 77 and put forward position papers and resolution draft in the way of “77+1.” When negotiations were deadlocked, China played a coordinating and catalytic role. As a big developing country, China made a significant contribution for the successful convening of the conference. After the conference, China formulated and adopted Agenda 21 in 1994. In order to implement Agenda 21, it also formulated the Priority Programs of China’s Agenda 21. The preparation and implementation of China’s Agenda 21 were carried out under the support and assistance of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and it was listed as the official cooperation project of the Chinese government and the United Nations Development

The Fourth Environment and Development China (International) Forum held in October 2008, Beijing. During this meeting, the All-China Environment Federation signed a “stragetic cooperative partner agreement” with Suez Environnement.

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Program. This work attracted wide attention from the international community and received strong support and participation from many relevant government agencies abroad and international organizations (such as the relevant United Nations agencies, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank). The conference in Rio de Janeiro adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that China signed on June 11, 1992. According to the convention, developing countries did not have to undertake the legally binding greenhouse gas emission reductions; however, all parties were required to develop, implement, publish, and regularly update national programs to deal with climate change. China was the first among the developing countries to develop and implement a National Climate Change Program. China, as the second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, is not only alert to international carbon-intensive and energy intensive projects moving to China but also continues to improve its “green degree” and develop energy-saving and lowpollution technologies and products. As an important performance obligation

The opening ceremony of the Implementation of Environmental Convention Building, Beijing, September 14, 2009. Attendees included, among others, the Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China, Zhou Shengxian (middle); Minister of Italian Environment, Territory and Ocean Ministry, Stefania Prestigiacomo (left); and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol, Husamuddin Ahmadzai (right).

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of the Climate Convention, in May 2007, China promulgated the China National Climate Change Program, which attached great importance to climate change, and in accordance with the requirements of its national sustainable development strategy, adopted a series of climate-change related policies and measures, which made a positive contribution to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The program clarified specific objectives, basic principles, and key policy areas in order to deal with climate change by 2010. With the growing influence of China’s resources in the world, in recent years, the international community has been very concerned about environmental issues in China. Indeed, China faces a series of serious environmental problems, such as dust storms, pollution, e-waste, and genetically modified food; however, it has been working on promoting environmental protection and has been continuously improving its environment. People around the world are aware of the environmental challenges facing China and send their good wishes. In June 2005, the UK magazine Nature launched a cover article entitled “China’s Position in the World” exploring the environmental issues in China. The author wrote: “In the past 20 years, China has forged an economic miracle. We hope that in the next 20 years, China can create another miracle, an environment miracle, and establish a good example for other countries to achieve sustainable socio-economic and environmental development. The result will affect not only China, but the whole world.” During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China honored its commitments by running a “Green Olympics.” It can be said that China gave the best gift to the environmental protection movement of the world. The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee maintained an open and cooperative attitude toward both the domestic and the international non-governmental organizations. In the Environment Review Report of the Beijing Olympic Games in October 2007, the United Nations Environment Program noted that the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee cooperated with a number of non-governmental environmental protection organizations. The air quality in Beijing during the Olympic Games was an issue that had concerned some and had caught the attention of the international media. It turned out that during the 17 days of the Beijing Olympic Games, the air quality was good every day and excellent for 10 days. The United Nations Environment Program issued a statement saying “Beijing’s air quality has improved.” Throughout 2008 in Beijing, the number of days with good air quality totaled to over 274, which was 28 days more than in 2007. Good environment was another important asset left by the Beijing Olympic Games. China has also performed very well in other international environmental conventions. For example, China did remarkably well in carrying out the requirements of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the

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The scenic Beijing Olympic Center area—with blue skies and white clouds, June 2009.

Ozone Layer. By the end of 2008, the “Protocol” Multilateral Fund Executive Committee had approved the elimination plan of 17 Chinese industries, of which 3 had been eliminated and 14 were being eliminated. In addition, the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants were also progressing smoothly. China was one of the earliest countries/regions in the world to sign and ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of the Convention that came into force for China on September 6, 2005.

2

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Having a vast territory, China is divided into five climate zones from north to south, that is, the cold temperate zone, the temperate zone, the warm temperate zone, the subtropical zone, and the tropical zone. Furthermore, it has complicated landform types. The unique climate and landform characteristics make for a rich natural ecosystem. China’s natural ecosystem can be divided into the water ecosystem, which includes the freshwater ecosystem and the marine ecosystem; the terrestrial ecosystem, which includes the forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystem, and desert ecosystem; and the wetland ecosystem lying between the water ecosystem and the terrestrial ecosystem. Due to thousands of years of development and pressure due to its vast population, China’s various ecological systems are subject to different levels of development, disturbance, and destruction, and require urgent care and protection.

The Freshwater Ecosystem For human beings, water is the source of life. Freshwater resources are indispensable to human beings. Several living creatures live in these resources. Also, it is an economic resource that supports the sound development of the national economy. The freshwater ecosystem of China includes its rivers and lakes. There are several rivers in China. There are more than 50,000 rivers with a basin of more than 100 sq km and more than 1,500 rivers with a basin of above 1,000 sq km. However, the distribution of rivers in China is asymmetric. The density of the river system decreases as one moves from the southeast to the northwest. The runoff volume of rivers in China changes every year. In general, there 25

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is abundant water in summer, low water in winter, with spring and autumn representing the transition periods. There are abundant glacier resources in China, including more than 43,000 glaciers that are distributed in the western part of China and cover a total area of 58,700 sq km. The glaciers account for half of Asia’s glaciers. Their total water reserves stand at about 5,200 billion cubic meters. These glaciers are concentrated in China’s western regions. China has many lakes, of which, more than 2,800 natural ones cover an area of more than 1 sq km each. The lakes of China are widely and asymmetrically distributed. The eastern plain and the Tibetan Plateau have the two biggest lake areas. In addition, there are many lakes in the Inner Mongolia Plateau, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Qaidam Basin, and the Junggar Basin, but

The water flow of the Jinsha River in the upper reach of the Yangtze River is torrential, forming the spectacular Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijiang, Yunnan.

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few lakes on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the Pearl River basin and Zhejiang-Fujian. The water reserves are large in terms of absolute value, but low in terms of per capita occupancy and regional occupancy. The spatial and temporal

Poyang Lake of Jiangxi, the largest fresh-water lake in China.

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distribution of water resources is uneven. The same is true for the integration of water and soil resources. Rainwater is the main water source for rivers in China with 44% of rainwater being transformed into running water in the rivers. However, the rainfall of China is subject to the distribution of lands and seas and the terrains, as a result of which, the distribution of rainfall is uneven, declining from the southeastern coastal areas to the northwestern inland areas. The runoff depth of the southeastern coastal areas is 1,200 mm, while that of the northwestern rainless regions is less than 50 mm, sometimes even touching zero. The distribution of water resources does not match that of the population and the farmlands. The area under farmlands in the southern part of China accounts for 35.9% of the nation’s farmlands, but the total water resources account for 81%. In the north though, there are more farmlands and more people along the basins of the Yellow River, the Huaihe River, the Haihe River and the Liaohe River. The total freshwater resources in these areas only account for 19% of the national reserve, and the per capita occupancy of water in these areas accounts for only about 18% of the national level. In addition, China’s water resources are affected by its climate. The rainfall decreases from southeast to northwest resulting in decreasing flows in the river system from southeast to northwest. The rivers flowing into deserts or lakes in the western rainless region are mainly supplied by melted water from the accumulation of snow. The runoff of this kind of water is influenced by temperature fluctuations. For the rivers in the northern part of China, melted water from seasonal snow is the main water source. In general, there are floods in spring. The duration for which the rivers will be frozen depends on the temperature. Ice-logged flooding may occur in rivers flowing from the low latitudes to high latitudes once there are changes in temperature. Only 6% of the freshwater in the world can be used to support the survival of Chinese people, who account for 22% of the world population. The conflict caused by the water supply and demand is becoming more obvious. In recent years, rapid economic development and population growth have resulted in a sharp increase in water consumption in China. The large-scale emission of urban industrial wastewater and sewage poses serious water pollution. This diminishes the supply of safe water sources available for human consumption. Water is no longer an inexhaustible natural resource since many cities are facing a water shortage. Water resource problems have seriously affected China’s environment and development. According to a survey carried out by some environmental groups, among the various environmental problems, the primary source of drinking water pollution is what the Chinese public is most concerned about. This is especially true in the medium and small cities and rural areas. In order to solve this problem, China has strengthened the protection work of the freshwater ecosystem and water sources. The Chinese Government has been paying much attention to the safety of drinking water and has begun protecting drinking water since the 1980s. It has

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made great efforts to deal with pollution and the monitoring of drinking water. It has intensified the protection of drinking water sources mainly by establishing drinking water resource protection zones at different levels and making plans for the environmental protection of drinking water sources. Different measures were adopted in accordance with the classification of the protection zones, for example, stopping the use of drain outlets (including industrial and domestic drain outlets) in the Class I drinking water source areas, stopping the use of the direct drain outlets in the Class II drinking water source areas, and banning earth excavating, earth-fetching, sand-digging, and quarrying activities in water source areas. During the 11th Five Year Plan period (2006 to 2010), China’s focus was and will be resolving the environmental problems in dealing with the unqualified water source areas of 113 key cities under environmental protection and the heavily polluted water source areas in some other cities; it will focus on dealing with the domestic pollution in the Class I protection zones. In fact, China is now carrying out relevant projects to guarantee the safety of drinking water in the rural areas. It was predicted that 160 million rural residents would be involved in these projects during the 11th Five Year Plan period.

The Kenasi River originating from Altai Mountain, Xinjiang.

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In recent years, the departments in charge of environmental protection in China have intensified pollution prevention in the key basins of China. This has produced some outstanding results. In 2008, China’s surface water pollution was still serious, and the general water quality of the seven freshwater river systems (the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Pearl River, the Songhuajiang River, the Huaihe River, the Haihe River, and the Liaohe River) was moderately polluted—same as the previous year’s level. Among the 409 water quality monitoring sections of 200 rivers, only 55.0% met the national surface water standards for Class I−III, belonging to potable water; this percentage was markedly improved, as compared with 50.0% in 2007. In the freshwater systems of China, the water quality of the Pearl River and the Yangtze River is generally good and that of the Songhuajiang River is lightly polluted; the Yellow River, the Huaihe River, and the Liaohe River are moderately polluted, and the Haihe River is severely polluted. The good water quality of the Pearl River systems is related to local protection. For example, the Dongjiang River (the third biggest water system in the Pearl

Shanxi Hukou Falls located in the middle section of the Yellow River.

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River basin) passes through Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and is the main water source of more than 30 million people, accounting for nearly 80% of the freshwater supply of Hong Kong. From the 1980s to the 1990s, there were many mines at the headwaters of the Dongjiang River. However, during these years, more than 330 of these mines were banned and closed by the local governments. Unauthorized and wasteful mining has been brought under control. Some areas have been reclaimed and trees have been planted. The average forest coverage of this area has reached 78.2%. According to the data from the Ministry of Environment Protection, of all the rivers of China, the Dongjiang River can be considered as one of the rivers with the best water quality. What is worrying is that according to the prediction of experts, with the aggravation of the warming trend in China in recent years, the glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and the Tianshan Mountain will accelerate their retreat, and some small glaciers will disappear. Th is will then trigger some extreme weather and climate events. In addition, the drinking water or daily-use water problem across the country has not been completely resolved. The eutrophication of lakes is outstanding. According to statistics,

The environmental monitoring authority of Harbin conducting a sampling inspection of the water source after a chemical pollution accident in the Mangniu River in August 2006. The Mangniu River is a tributary of the Songhuajiang River.

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75% of the lakes in the country face the eutrophication problem. Among the 28 key state-controlled lakes and reservoirs, six are Grade IV, five are Grade V, and eleven are worse that Grade V. In other words, the water quality of as many as 22 lakes is below Grade IV, which accounts for 78.6% of key lakes (reservoirs). The Songhuajiang River pollution incident in late 2006 and the blue green algae incidents that occurred in Taihu Lake, Dianchi Lake, and Chaohu Lake in the summer of 2007 resulted in people from these areas being unable to take water from the original water sources. These problematic situations mean that China still faces huge pressures in protecting and treating its water sources.

The Marine Ecosystem The seas adjacent to the Chinese mainland include the Bohai Sea, the Huanghai Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea, covering an area of 4.73 million sq km. Coastlines in China (island coastlines and mainland coastlines) total about 32,000 kilometers in length. Of these, the mainland coastlines are more than 18,000 kilometers long. Currently, these coastal areas

Hainan Dazhou Island: a national-level ocean ecological nature reserve.

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have been facing different levels of ecological crises, such as less diversity in species, rise in sea levels, exhaustion of fishing resources, frequent natural disasters, and pollution of coastal waters. These crises have had an adverse impact on the social and economic development of the regions near the waters and an indirect impact on the social and economic development of the whole world. How to protect the marine ecological environment during the rapid economic development process and how to realize a harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature have become important issues that need to be resolved. Owing to the discharge of large amounts of industrial and municipal waste and waste from livestock breeding, the quality of water and deposits in the coastal areas has dropped and eutrophication of the water has become more serious. Due to this, the natural ecosystem has been damaged and ecological fragility has become severe. The construction of ports, land reclamation, dumping of solids into the sea, and mariculture have reduced the sea area, changed the hydrodynamic conditions, reduced the coastal beach, and led to a rapid drop in the tidal flow and self-purification capacity. Since more sand is being excavated from the beach, the coastal shelter forest is becoming smaller and more soil and water is being lost, resulting in erosion along the coastlines in some areas. In effect, the landscape and ecosystem are becoming seriously compromised. Therefore, protection of the marine ecosystem has emerged as an urgent issue demanding immediate attention. According to the monitoring data from the environmental protection authorities, in 2008, the general water quality of offshore waters was mildly polluted, improving a little as compared to the previous year. Most of the offshore waters are clean, and the ocean waters maintain good water quality. Among the 301 offshore water quality monitoring points, the percentage of first and second-class water was 70.4%, an increase of 7.6% over the previous year; the percentage of third-class water was 11.3%, same as that in the previous year; the percentage of the fourth-class and worse-than-fourth class water was 18.3%, down by 7.6%. The water quality of the offshore water in the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea was good—normal in the Bohai Sea and poor in the East China Sea. In 2008, the general water quality of the 198 rivers that discharged into the sea monitored by the environmental protection authorities remained poor. The volume of the pollutants discharged into the sea was more than that of the pollutants directly discharged into the sea from the pollution sources. The total volume of river pollutants discharged into the East China Sea is far more than that into the other seas. The total volume of permanganate, petroleum class, and total phosphorus pollutants into the sea increased

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In June 2007, the sea area near Shenzhen, Guangdong, was polluted by a red tide—a striking contrast to the blue sky and white clouds.

FYI


“RED GH OST” RED TIDE

The red tide is an abnormal phenomenon in the ocean ecosystem, and it is caused by the explosive proliferation of the red tide algae in the seaweed family under specific environmental conditions. After the occurrence of red tide, the sea water will become red or some other color such as yellow, green, or brown. The red tide is always accompanied with the death of fish and other marine creatures due to lack of oxygen. In addition, the red tide releases many harmful gases and toxins, greatly polluting the marine environment. A great deal of waste water and sewage with nitrogenous organic compounds is discharged into the sea water, causing its eutrophication, and this is the primary cause in the formation of red tide.

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slightly. Also in 2008, 68 red tides occurred in the whole sea area, 14 less than that in the previous year. However, the accumulated area of red tide increased. Now, the focus is on trying to retain the beautiful beaches and making efforts to restore the marine ecosystem in the following ways: first, strengthening the degree of protection and strictly controlling marine pollution and second, letting the seas and oceans recuperate and rebuild themselves. In recent years, the Chinese Government has taken many steps to protect the mangroves, which are also called the “forests at the bottom of the sea.” Great efforts have been made to allow the full play of mangroves in cleaning the heavy metals, farm chemicals, and sewage, and in preventing the occurrence of red tides. The mangroves mainly consist of the Rhizophoraceae plant. A mangrove is a kind of rare woody viviparous plant and is often used to balance the marine ecosystem. Mangroves grow on the sea beaches in the tropics and subtropics and have a strong root system. Most of them are submerged in seawater when there is a rising tide. The luxuriant mangroves act as green screens for the coastal areas and play an important role in protecting the stability of these areas. In addition, the root system of mangroves forms a natural sewage treatment system. Chinese mangroves are mainly found in the coastal areas of Taiwan, Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian provinces. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has the most mangroves, a third of the total. It is home to many kinds of marine organisms like the coral reefs in the tropical seas. The mangroves of China support different kinds of plant species, big algae, phytoplanktons, zoobenthos, insects, birds, mammals, and reptiles. Many of them are rare and endangered species or nationally protected animals and plants. So far, China has established seven mangrove protection areas at provincial levels and above. The area of the mangroves in these protection areas accounts for 50% of the total area of the nation’s mangroves. The Guangxi Mangrove Research Center is the first integrated mangrove protection, research, and management system established in China. Since the 1990s, many coastal areas in China have encountered a big decline in marine resources caused by excessive fishing, and the sustainable development of the marine fishing industry has been greatly threatened. In order to protect marine resources, China implemented the summer fishing ban in 1995. In accordance with this ban, fishing in certain areas should be stopped during a certain period each year so as to protect the aquatic animals and plants. So far, the fishing ban has been implemented in all the four sea areas under the administration of China, including 11 coastal provinces

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The mangrove shelter forest by the Sanya seaside, Hainan.

(including autonomous regions and municipalities) and Hong Kong and Macao Special Administration Regions. About 120,000 boats and a million fishermen have been involved. The fishing ban effectively stems the decline of marine resources. However, many high-quality fishes need ten years to become mature fishes. More work should be done to protect the marine resources of China.

The Forest Ecological System China has rich forest resources with diverse ecological systems. The forest ecological system of China plays a critical role in sustainable development, ecological safety, and protection of the bio-diversity of the world economy. As of 2008, the forest area of China is 195 million hectares; the forest coverage is 20.36%; and the forest volume is 13.721 billion cubic meters. The forest ecosystem of China is mainly distributed in the eastern region

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of the country. Due to the prevailing temperature conditions, the typical forest ecosystems distributed in succession from north to south include the cold temperate zone coniferous forest, the temperate zone coniferous and broadleaved mixed forest, the warm temperate zone deciduous broad leaved forest and coniferous forest, the subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest and coniferous forest, and the tropical zone monsoon forest and rain forest. As a country with the fastest growth in forest resources, China has the largest artificial forest coverage in the world. Only from 2003 to 2008, China’s forest area had a net increase of 20.54 million hectares. China’s artificial forest covers 54 million hectares, ranking the top in the world. Currently, China is working on several forest projects such as Three-North (Northeast China, North China, and Northwest China) Protection Forest, Yangtze River Valley Protection Forest, Coastal Protection Forest, Pearl River Valley Protection Forest, Treatment Project of Beijing and Tianjin Sandstorm Sources, Taihang Mountain Forestation Project, and Plain Forestation Project.

Villagers in Shangdian Village, Changping District, Beijing, persistently plant trees even on a windy day. This area is one of the important regions included in the “Treatment Project of Beijing and Tianjin Sandstorm Sources.”

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A shelter forest along the Tarim desert highway in Xinjiang.

In order to change the hazardous conditions of sand storms and soil erosion in the Three-North area (Northwest China, North China, and Northeast China) from the roots, China initiated the Three-North Protection Forest Project—a large artificial forest ecological project—in 1978 and plans to complete it by 2050. The 73-year-long project is divided into eight phases in three stages. According to the plan, 534 million Mu of forest will be planted (15 Mu is about 1 hectare) When the project is completed, the forest cover percentage of the Three-North region will rise to 14.95% from 5.05% of 1977, resulting in an effective control over wind and sand threats and water and soil loss as well as a greatly-improved ecological environment. The project involves 590 counties belonging to 13 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, covering a total area of 4.069 million square kilometers, or 42.4% of China’s territory. The enormous project, dubbed the “green Great Wall” of China and the “largest ecological project in the world” by international media, surpasses the United States’ RS (1934), the former Soviet Union’s SRN (1948), and the five north African countries’ Green Dam Plan (end of the 1970s) in scale and scope. By the end of 2000, the first three phases were completed with an afforestation area of above 22 million hectares. In total, 5.5 million hectares of forest for

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The natural forests in Yunyang County, Chongqing, have been protected effectively.

water and soil conservancy and one million hectares of water source conservancy forests have been planted in the Loess Plateau and the mountainous regions in North China. About 140,000 sq km of water and soil loss area have been treated, accounting for 40% of the total. In total, more than two million hectares of forest for protecting croplands have been planted. Altogether, 21.3 million hectares of croplands form a network, comprising 64% of the total arable lands of the ThreeNorth region. The lumber stock volume in the Three-North region has reached 997 million cubic meters. More than 3.6 million hectares of forests have been planted, including some bases for special fruits with annual production of 12.55 million tons of dried and fresh fruits and a total production value of RMB 1.7 billion. The fourth phase of the Three-North Project started in 2001 and has seen the afforestation of 1.5031 million hectares and of green dunes of 1.2119 million hectares by 2005. In 1998, China executed the policy of “returning farmlands to forests” and started the Natural Forest Resource Protection Project. Natural forests account for 70% of the existing forest area in China. The natural forest resource protection project mainly addresses rehabilitation and recovery to realize

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The scenic Yangtze Gorges after the implementation of the “returning farmlands to forests” policy.

harmonious development of the ecology, society, and economy. The pilot work began in 1998 and was rolled out in 17 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across China in the year 2000. The project covers the period 2000 to 2010 with a total investment of RMB 96.2 billion, and provides practical protection to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, as well as natural forests in key state-owned forest regions in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. In 1999, Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu initiated the pilot work of returning farmlands to forests and pastures to grasslands. The year 2002 witnessed the all-round rolling-out of the project. Returning the farmlands to forests and the grazing pastures to the grasslands is widespread in China. The cultivation of arable lands located at the slopes, which cause water and soil loss and lead to desertification, is to be stopped. Trees and grass will be planted as required and forest vegetation will be recovered. In 2003, the Chinese Government put forward the policy to quicken the development of forestry that “fully took advantage of overseas and domestic markets and resources.” As of 2008, the area of forests returned from farmlands reached

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31.91 million hectares; the urban green coverage rate in the whole country rose up to 35.11% from 29.5%; and the per capita public green area increased to 8.6 square meters from 6.49 square meters. These results greatly benefited the economy, ecology, and society: forest resources of the project area grew stably, the area with water and soil losses reduced, and the desertification of lands was under control. This significantly benefited the peasants. Wuzhai County, Xinzhou City, and Shanxi Province are situated in the Loess Plateau. In the past, the pastures here were destroyed by sheep and wind. Today, more than 40,000 hectares of dunes are covered with vegetation, presenting a picture of undulating green hills. The forests of the county cover 5.5 ten thousand hectares with a vegetation coverage rate of 52% achieved by grazing bans and afforestation on the hills. The natural environment has undergone a major change and the production and living conditions of villagers have improved greatly. In 2008, the total output of China was 947,155,000 tons of fresh natural grasslands, equivalent to about 296,268,000 tons of hay, which has a carrying capacity of about 231.78 million sheep units. In recent years, thanks to the forestry ecological efficiency compensation system of China, the forest area and stocking volume have increased rapidly, age-structured forests and forest farms have had a reasonable tendency to grow, and forest quality has tended to improve. This has achieved the historical belief of gradually rising by a constant reduction. However, for economic benefit,

930

747

716.7 637 588

473

480

1998 1999

516

530

2000 2001

520

2002

2003 2004

2005

457

477

2006

2007 2008

Source: National Annual Statistics Bulletin, National Bureau of Statistics.

National forestation data for 1998 to 2009

2009

42


some areas have replaced natural forest by cash crops. Although the forest coverage rate has increased in numbers, it will seriously affect the forest quality of China in the long run. How to handle similar problems is a new task for the Chinese environmental protection authorities and concerned individuals.

The Grassland Ecological System China’s grasslands cover an area of 0.4 billion hectares, accounting for 41.7% of the territory, much larger than the forest area and land area. China’s grasslands are the second largest in the world after Australia’s, whose grassland area accounts for 13% of the world’s grasslands. It can be said that China is a country with abundant grassland resources. The grassland area of 12 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) including Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Chongqing is about 0.33 billion hectares, accounting for 84.4% of the grasslands of the entire country. China’s grasslands, starting from Great Xingan Mountains, Songnen Plain, and Hulunbuir Plateau to the southwest and reaching the south border of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau via Inner Mongolia and the Loess plateaus, stretch for more than 4,500 kilometers. Grasslands are the biggest green ecological barrier for China—the basic production material for pastoral areas and are home to China’s main ethic groups. In 2008, the natural grasslands produced a total of 947.155 million tons of fresh grass in the whole country, equal to about 296.268 million tons of hay, with a carrying capacity of about 231.78 million sheep units. According to the relevant information, from the beginning of the last century to the present, China’s north grasslands have receded about 200 kilometers to the north and about 100 kilometers to the west; 90% of the natural grassland degenerates in different degrees. In recent years, about

The beautiful Bayinbuluke Grassland of Xinjiang. Surrounded by snow mountains, it is known as the “Hometown of Swans.”

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The Hulunbuir Grassland of Inner Mongolia with its well-preserved ecology.

1.50 million hectares of grasslands has been vanishing every year and the trend continues. In the past few years, China has strengthened the ecological development and planning management of its grasslands. As a result, administration concerning the grasslands converts to “placing equal stress on ecology, economy, and social targets, and ecology is paramount” from focusing on economical targets; grassland vegetation is recovered effectively and the ecological environment of the grasslands has improved gradually. From 2000 to 2005, the central government invested more than RMB 9 billion to carry out several projects on the ecological development of grasslands including natural grassland vegetation recovery and construction, grassland fencing, grass seed base, returning grazing pastures to grasslands, and the Treatment Project of Beijing and Tianjin Sandstorm Sources. From 2003 to 2008, the accumulated area of grazing pastures returned to grasslands was 34.60 million hectares. In 2008, China carried out the returning grazing pastures to grasslands project in Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang, Yunnan, and Guizhou. Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps invested RMB 1.5 billion, building 5.228 million hectares of grassland fences, treated 27 thousand hectares of stone desertification land, and seeded 1.569 million hectares of grassland with serious recession. In addition, it carried out the Treatment Project of Beijing and Tianjin Sandstorm Source Grasslands in Beijing, Inner

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Mongolia, Shanxi, and Hebei, investing RMB 0.39 billion, treating 0.236 million hectares of grassland, building 1.21 million square meters of enclosures and equipping 25,540 sets of forage processing machine. Thanks to the implementation of these projects, in the project areas, the grassland vegetation coverage, height, and fresh grass yield has risen greatly, the ecological environment has improved obviously, the construction of infrastructural facilities has strengthened, and the production mode of animal husbandry has been converted effectively. To utilize the pastures effectively, China follows a pasture division and shift system. It is an advanced grazing method that divides the pasture area into a number of units according to their productivity and utilization. The grazing shift is designed to graze the livestock while maintaining the productivity of the pasture. In other words, the pasture division and shift system combines livestock grazing with the protection of pastures. With the pasture division and shift system, the grazing animals are limited to a relatively small area so that the pastures can be utilized effectively. The system can help 30% more livestock to be raised on the same area. The herdsmen use the pasturing units in turn and this ensures pastures of high quality for grazing. As the livestock stays in a relatively small area, the sick ones can be found earlier and losses caused by predators are reduced significantly.

The Inner Mongolia grassland follows regional rotation grazing.

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Usually, wire netting is used as a fence to divide the pasturing area while natural formations such as wooded belts, moats, brooks, lakes, hills, or man-made marks (poles, stones, or earth mounds) are utilized as natural boundaries for a pasturing unit. It is ideal to use an electric fence to divide the pasturing units. The problems that beset grasslands are mainly fire, rodent, and insect attacks. In 2008, 9,895.9 hectares of grasslands were destroyed by fire in the whole country, reduced by 13.0% as compared to the previous year. In the same year, rats attacked 36.758 million hectares of grasslands; about 9.4% of the total grassland area, 5.6% lower as compared to the previous year. Insects damaged 27.007 million hectares of grasslands, about 6.9% of the total area, an increase of 53.6% as compared to the previous year. The important aspect regarding the preservation of the grasslands ecology is to reduce these disasters. Take prevention of rats for an example. Although small in size, rats live in the pastures in quite a large number and cause serious damage. In the arid and alpine grassland and alpine cold meadows and steppes, the area destroyed by rats is approximately 30%. Besides tools and drugs, it is economical and scientific to kill mice using their natural enemies. An owl can kill 1,000 field mice in summer while the ferret can eat 2,500–3,000 mice a year. The simplest way is to erect a wood pole every 500 meters for the raptors to rest and then the rodents can be controlled in that area.

The Ecological System of the Oases in Deserts Land that has suffered desertification in China is scattered over 471 prefectures, leagues, and cities of 18 provinces; regions and cities, mainly in the 12 provinces of Northeast China; the northern area of North China; western area of Northeast China; and northern Tibet. In China, desertification consists of wind erosion, water erosion, freezing and thawing, and soil salting. The vertical distance extends to thousands of meters. From the sea level to the high, cold desert, desertification can be found everywhere. The land area under wind erosion is 1,607,000 sq km, and is mainly found in dry and semiarid areas. Among all types of desertification land, wind-eroded land has the largest area and range. The area under water erosion is 205,000 sq km, and is distributed in different parts. Freezing and thawing constitutes 366,000 sq km and is mainly seen in high-altitude areas in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The area under desertification caused by soil salting is 233,000 sq km and is distributed in oases around the Tarim Basin, the plains of the northern side of Tianshan Mountains, the Hetao Plain, the Yinchuan Plain, the North China Plain, and the Yellow River Delta.

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The diversifolious poplar woods along the Tarim River in the backland of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang. These trees perform the important function of resisting wind and sand.

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Most deserts are located at the sources of rivers in western China. The desert is a fragile ecosystem, which is difficult to recover once destroyed. Sandy land vegetation is crucial to maintaining the desert ecosystem. When treating the desert ecological system, China emphasizes the protection of desert vegetation. In deserts, diversifolious poplar forests help hold the soil in place. The age of some trees can reach a thousand years. Red willows, saxauls, elms, Caragana Korshinskii Kom, and sea buckthorns are anti-desertification tree varieties that must be protected. The desert ecosystem protection implemented by China is crucial to water and soil conservation in western China. Between the 1950s and the 1960s, China set up a desertification a control experiment station in Shazhuyu, Qinghai, and carried out many types of desertification control and forestation experiments. Under the direction of experts, the locals controlled desertification by combining engineering and biological measures, established grass cultivation belts within enclosed mountainous areas, stabilization belts for sands by forestation, and farm-protecting forest belts. This formed a comprehensive prevention and protection system and improved the ecology. This method was widely used in areas that faced desertification throughout the country. Niu Yuqin, from Jinjisha Village, Shaanxi Province, is good at sand control. She began to plant trees to control desertification in 1984. She has turned 7,333.2 hectares of desert into an oasis. Her outstanding accomplishment won her the Y.S. Rao Award of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1993. She has founded a village on a 16-hectare desert, which is equipped with water, roads, and power, and can accommodate 24 migrant households.

FYI


TH E “EIGH T D ESERTS” AN D “F O UR SAN DY LA NDS ” OF CH INA

China is a country with several deserts. These mainly consist of 12 large deserts, that is, the “eight deserts”—the Taklamakan Desert, the Gurbantunggut Desert, the Badain Jaran Desert, the Tengger Desert, the Qaidam Desert, the Kumutage Desert, the Ulan Buh Desert, and the Kubuqi Desert—and “four sandy lands”—the Mu Us Sandy Land, Otindag Sandy Land, Keerqin Sandy Land, and Hulunbuir Sandy Land. A quicksand accumulation in an arid area is called a desert, and quicksand accumulation in a semiarid area is known as a sandy land.

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The Chinese Government sees the prevention of desertification as a strategic measure to improve the ecology of a region, expand the land available for living and development, boost coordinated social and economic development, and promote sustainable development. In recent years, the Chinese Government has promulgated and implemented the Law of Prevention and Control of Desertification, approved the National Desert Prevention and Control Plan (2005–2010), implemented key projects related to desertification prevention and control, reduced both the land areas vulnerable to desertification as well as desert areas, and halted the expansion of desertification. Since 2000, China has been guided by the principle of “stressing prevention, combining prevention with control, and carrying out comprehensive treatment” in desertification prevention and control. Stressing prevention means energetically stopping the process of desertification, protecting the existing vegetation, water, and marshes in deserts, and blocking new desertification. Combining prevention and control means controlling the rate of desertification and preventing new desertification, controlling the parts that directly do harm to the public, and expanding control by planting trees and grass. Comprehensive treatment means controlling specific desertification points and putting an end to large-size land desertification.

The Taklamakan Desert of Xinjiang is the largest desert in China.

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In order to prevent the further expansion of desertification, China has built large forest and grass belts to block wind and soil erosion in the eight largest deserts and four largest sandy areas and has built wide-ranging forest belts for sand fixation between deserts and oases. At the same time, the government has spread the use of tillage-free method in dry arable land that is subject to the serious effects of sandstorms. This method of tillage leaves the roots intact. Arable land suffering from desertification has been planted with trees and grass. In grasslands suffering from desertification, herding is the main means to halt the process. Experience has shown that when the grass and shrub coverage rate on sandy land reaches 30%, quicksand can be fixed, and when shrub coverage rate is higher than 40%, desertification can be controlled. The oases of China are mainly located at the northern foot of the Qilian Mountain and the Kunlun Maintain, the southern and northern foot of Tianshan Mountain, and Hetao Plain. In 86 counties and cities in these areas, there are more than 80 oases, including 42 along the edge of the Tarim Basin, 28 along the edge of the Junggar Basin, and some in the Hami-Turpan Basin and the Ili River Valley. There are 21 counties and cities along the Hexi Corridor (Gansu Corridor), and they form 19 big oases. Besides, there are more than 40 towns and residential areas in the Qaidam Basin, and they form more than 40 small oases. For hundreds of years, many artificial oases have been shaped in the process of construction of long artificial canals for water diversion, drawing groundwater, building reservoirs, and reclaiming barren lands. The oasis of the Tikanlik-Daxihaizi Reservoir at the lower reaches of the Tarim River, the oasis of the Shihezi-Mosuo Bay in the Junggar Basin in northern Xinjiang, and the oasis of Kuitun-Chepaizi are all of such a kind. The boom in Shihezi is a result of oasis reclamation and construction. Thanks to the approximately half-century reclamation process that started in the 1950s, the Gobi desert and

Plants in the Badain Jaran Desert of Inner Mongolia.

Plants in the Xinjiang deserts.

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barren lands in Xinjiang have been developed into bases for planting cotton and food. In Qinghai, a number of oases in extremely cold deserts have been reclaimed, including the Xiangride Oasis, Shazhuyu Oasis, Nuomuhong Oasis, Geermu Oasis, and Delingha Oasis, giving a big boost to the all-round development of agriculture and livestock husbandry in these areas.

The Wetland Ecosystem A wetland ecosystem is an ecological system connecting an open water area to a land experiencing the periodic drought that common aquatic life cannot adapt to and the long inundation that common land plants cannot stand. Wetlands are crucial to maintaining the ecological environment of the earth. As the country with the largest wetland area in Asia, China is one of the countries which have the most abundant biological diversity of wetlands in the world. China boasts of complete wetland types, with rich numbers. According to the classification standards of the Wetland Convention on Wetlands, China has 31 kinds of natural wetlands and 9 kinds of man-made wetlands. Wetlands are spread widely across China. According to biological regional characters, climatic features, and abundance of biological diversity, China’s wetlands can be divided into 8 main regions, that is, the Northeast China wetlands; the North China wetlands; the wetlands in the mid- and lower reaches of the Yangtze River; the wetlands in the north coast of the Hangzhou Bay; the wetlands in the south coast of Hangzhou Bay; the wetlands in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau; the arid and semi-arid wetlands of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang; and the highcold wetlands in the Tibetan Plateau. The east area of China has more river wetlands; the northeast area features more marshes; while the western drought area has few wetlands. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have more lake wetlands. The lakes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the northwest drought area are mostly saltwater lakes and salt lakes. The Hainan Island and the coastal area of North Fujian Province have unique mangrove and man-made tropic and sub-tropic wetlands. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has a large area of plateau marshes and lakes with the highest altitude in the world, forming a unique ecosystem. There are 28 types of wetlands. Those having an area more than 100 hectares make up 38.48 million hectares of China’s territory. Among them, the natural wetlands constitute 36.20 million hectares, including 5.94 million hectares of coast wetlands, 8.21 million hectares of river wetlands, 8.35 million hectares of lake wetlands, and 13.70 million hectares of marsh wetlands.

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Hangzhou Xixi National Wetland Park.

China enjoys abundant wetland species, including 31 breeds, 12 branches, and 7 orders of animals; 271 breeds, 32 branches, and 12 orders of birds; 122 breeds, 13 branches, and 3 orders of reptiles; 300 breeds, 11 branches, 3 orders of amphibians; more than 1,000 kinds of fish, about 2276 kinds, 815 categories, 225 branches of wetland advanced plants; 267 kinds, 139 categories, and 64 branches of mosses; 70 kinds, 42 categories, and 27 branches of ferns; 20 kinds, 9 categories, 4 branches of gymnospermous plants; as well as 1,919 kinds, 625 categories, and 130 branches of angiosperms. At present, the protection and management system for wetlands is gradually taking shape. Here, the natural reserves command the principal focus, and various protection and management forms including wetland parks and reserves coexist. Up to the end of 2008, China built more than 550 natural wetland reserves and 38 national wetland parks, of which, 36 are listed in the important international wetland catalog of the Wetland Convention. There are more than 17.90 million hectares of natural wetlands that are effectively protected in the whole country. These account for about 49% of the whole area of wetlands of the country. In 2008 alone, China built 20 national wetland parks. China began to reform and open up in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During that period, the wetlands were seriously damaged because of farming, hydropower stations, and tourism development being pursued with short-term economic objectives in mind. Since China joined the Wetland

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Convention on Wetlands in 1992, the government has made a concerted effort to protect the wetlands. The State Forestry Administration has set up the “Commitment Fulfillment Office of Ramsar Convention on Wetlands” which is responsible for the enforcement of wetland protection. In November 2000, the China National Wetlands Conservation Action Plan was promulgated. In February 2004, the State Forestry Administration promulgated the Wetlands Conservation Planning with approval from the State Council. Much has been achieved in the past 20 years in terms of wetlands recovery and construction. After applying four times, as of now, 36 wetlands have been listed in the important international wetland catalog of the Wetland Convention in China. These include Zhalong of Heilongjiang, Qinghai Bird’s Island, Mai Po and Deep Bay of Hong Kong, Heilongjiang’s Three Rivers, East Coast of the Chongming Island, Bita Lake and La Shi Hai of Yunnan, Tibetan Midika, and Zoige in Sichuan. The Yellow River Delta Wetlands is located at the mouth of the Yellow River, Dongying City, Shandong province. Covering 1,410 sq km, this place features a unique climate, rich wetland resources, and is the youngest, best preserved wetlands ecosystem in the warm temperature zone with the largest coverage in the world. The state-level Yellow River Delta Natural Reserve is established here. Its aim is to protect the primeval wetland ecosystem and the birds. The Yellow River Delta Wetlands boast rich wetland types, diversified landscapes, a high proportion of natural wetlands, which account for 68.4% of the total wetland area, including the rivers and lakes of the fresh water ecosystem and wet meadows, bushes, open forests, reed, and saline wetlands. The man-made wetlands mainly include ponds and reservoirs. The area boasts of rich wetland wildlife. There are 116 species of high-grade plants, more than 800 species of sea creatures and 187 species of birds. Of these, 32 species are under the protection of the country, including the red-crowned crane and

The Yellow River Delta Wetlands in Dongying, Shandong.

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hooded crane, and 108 species are under the protection of the Sino-Japanese protection agreement on migrating birds. The Yellow River Delta is an important passage and an overwintering site for migrating birds from Northeast Asia and the Pacific Rim. The Sichuan state-level Zoige Wetlands Natural Reserve, located at the east side of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, in Zoige county, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Ethnic Groups autonomous prefecture, is a natural reserve of a complex wetlands ecosystem. Covering 166,570.6 hectares, the Zoige Wetlands was approved as a state-level natural reserve in 1998 by the State Council, and is aimed at protecting the high-cold marsh wetland ecosystem and rare wildlife such as the black-necked crane. In 2005, the Zoige Wetlands Reserve was crowned “the most beautiful wetland of China” by National Geographic. Zoige Wetland is the typical representative of the high-cold wetland ecological system in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. According to international wetland experts, it is “the largest, the most primitive, and the best plateau wetland undamaged by human beings”. The reserve is mostly a plain plateau, 3,697 meters at its highest point and 3,422 meters at its lowest point. However, it is above sea level. It is cold and humid, so the peat swamp is widespread and supports extensive vegetation. With a great number of unique species,

The Zoige Wetland is a well-protected plateau wetland.

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The lush-green Huahu Lake in the Zoige Wetland.

the reserve is one of the key areas of biodiversity and has one of the richest mountain species in the world. The reserve has 207 species of plants (including fungi). Of these, the Circaeaster agrestis and aweto are important plants under state protection. There are 218 species of vertebrate, including the black-necked crane and the bearded vulture, totaling more than 30 species. It is also a breeding area of the black-necked crane with about 480 black-necked cranes living there. In recent years, the surface pond of Zoige has become markedly shallow, a sign of the recession of the wetland ecosystem and the desertification of the wetlands. Further, because the reserve is surrounded and divided by three roads, the survival of amphibians, mammals, and birds is also affected. This has caused an alarm and drawn the attention of the relevant authorities. The Three-River Plain, an alluvial plain covering about 5 million hectares, is the largest marsh distribution area of China, located at the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River and the Ussuri River, Heilongjiang province. The three rivers refer to the Heilongjiang River, the Ussuri River, and the Songhua River. Both the Three-River National Natural Reserve and the Honghe National Natural Reserve are located here. The Three-River National Natural Reserve is located in the northeast part of the Three-River Plain, adjacent to Russia with the Heilongjiang River on the north and the Ussuri River on the east,

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covering 198,100 hectares. It has 38 species of mammals, 231 species of birds, 7 species of reptiles, 5 species of amphibians, and 77 species of fish, including animals under key state protection such as the oriental white stork, redcrowned crane, Mergus squamatus, golden eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla, and Haliaeetus leucoryphus. The Honghe Natural Reserve is located at the center of the Sanjiang Plain, covering 21,835.7 hectares and was included in the List of Wetlands of International Importance in 2001. The reserve is home to 173 species of birds, including the oriental white stork, Ciconia nigra, the red-crowned crane, Grus vipio, mandarin duck, whooper swan, Haliaeetus albicilla, Haliaeetus pelagicus Kamchatkan, Aquila clanga, and Spotted Capercaillie, which are under state protection. The urban wetlands are an important part of the urban ecology. The wetland is of great significance for urban biodiversity protection, urban landscape construction, and ecosystem and environment construction. China’s rapid urbanization is posing a serious threat to the urban wetland area. China has taken two main measures to protect the urban wetlands, namely, establishing wetland reserves and urban wetland parks. The urban wetlands have been turned into parks integrating protection, popular science promotion, and recreation. The Management Methods of National Urban Wetland Parks (Trial) was promulgated by the Ministry of Construction in February 2005, offering

The Heilongjiang Zhalong Nature Reserve mainly protects the red-crowned crane and other wild precious birds.

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the legislative guarantee for urban wetland park protection. In 2004, the Sanggouwan Urban Wetland Park, Rongcheng City, Shandong province, was approved as the first urban wetland park of China. As of March 2009, China has published five batches of national urban wetland park catalogs. Now, there are 30 national urban wetland parks in the country.

Ecological Restoration Due to the development history spanning several thousand years and its vast population, China’s ecosystems are developed, disturbed, and even spoiled to varying degrees. Because of the decline of ecosystems, the services performed by them—including the conservation of water resources, defending against wind erosion, retaining sand, providing a buffer against flood disasters, holding soil together, and protecting biodiversity—have reduced dramatically. This has resulted in a series of ecological issues that seriously threaten national ecological security. Therefore, restoring the ecological systems has taken on the proportion of crisis management. In recent years, a series of measures have been implemented by China for promoting natural ecological restoration, aimed at restoring 300 thousand square meters of ecological areas and treating 22 million hectares of land suffering from desertification. Ecological restoration along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a typical example. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway crosses the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where the natural environment is unique and fragile, and is listed as the priority area in “global biodiversity protection” by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). During the construction of the railway, the borrow pit and construction site were strictly selected by the environmental protection departments and construction units, and the impact on the local ecological environment can be said to be negligible. However, due to human activities such as construction, vegetation growth in the local areas has been adversely affected. Research into the restoration of vegetation specific to those regions is now underway. In 2001, the process of restoration of vegetation along the Qinghai-Tibet railway was launched. Researchers experimented with seeds of the original plant on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to decipher what kind of plants were suitable for artificial growth, whether the cultivated plants could thrive under the natural conditions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and if the plants would be able to survive the winter and maintain stable growth. The research departments established experimental bases in the areas along the Tuotuo River and the Beimi River in Qinghai Province and Anduo County of Tibet Autonomous Region. The researches on restoration of vegetation along the Qinghai-Tibet

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The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is important for ecological protection.

railway will ensure that the restoration of vegetation can be carried out quickly after the completion of the Qinghai-Tibet railway. At the same time, the research results will be applied to vegetation coverage for slope protection. The restoration research on recessed ecosystems implemented by the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the Otindag Sandy Land situated in Inner Mongolia is inspiring. Otindag Sandy Land is 180 km away from Beijing and is the sand resource closest to Beijing. This sandy land, with lush pastures and unique landscapes, is known as the “desert garden.” However, due to constant drought and over grazing, the pastures have receded, rivers and lakes have withered, and desertification has become increasingly serious. This sandy land has become one of the main sources of dust storms affecting Beijing in recent years. The research carried out by the Chinese Academy of Sciences over the past five years shows that it is not necessary to treat the ecological system of the Otindag Sandy Land by using artificial measures, such as planting and aerial seeding on a large scale. The ecological system of the Otindag Sandy Land can be restored by natural forces in line with the law of nature. The measures taken by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to maintain the land by

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Autumn in the Otindag Sandland.

natural forces only cost RMB 20 per Mu. Moreover, money can be utilized to solve the problems of water, electricity, and infrastructure (rpads). The money actually used for ecological restoration is the fence expense of RMB 4 per Mu. Through such ecological restoration, the local places would regain their pastures, shrubs, and native trees reaping obvious benefits for the ecology, society, and economy.

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Chapter 3

Biological Diversity

Biological diversity (commonly referred to as biodiversity) refers to the sum of the ecological complex formed by the various life forms, the environment, and various related ecological courses, including animals, plants, microorganisms, their genes as well as the complicated ecological system formed by them and their living environment. It is the basic feature of life on our planet and includes three closely-related layers: inheritance diversity, species diversity, and ecological system diversity. Species diversity is at the core. Biological diversity is the foundation of people’s survival and development. The world’s citizens share the responsibility of protecting the planet’s biological diversity. The United Nations set 2010 as the Year of International Biological Diversity and its theme is “Biodiversity is life, biodiversity is our life.” China is a country with significant biological diversity. Hence, protecting China’s biological diversity is crucial and China has made great strides in protecting it.

Biological Diversity and Its Protection in China China has a vast territory. Thanks to its complex and diversified natural conditions and a long geological history, it has abundant species of animals, plants, and animalcules as well as a colorful ecological combination. It is one of 12 mega-diversity countries in the world. Its biological diversity is explained below:

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A Diversified Ecosystem China has all types of ecosystems that exist in the northern hemisphere and can be divided into 595 groups dominated by forests, grasslands, wastelands, farmlands, wetlands, and oceans.

Various Biological Species China has a vast territory and a complicated terrain and climate. It spans across the Frigid Zone, the Temperate Zone, and the Torrid Zone from north to south. Plateaus and mountainous regions make up 80% of its territory. Thanks to its diversified biological environment, China has abundant species of wild animals and plants. It is one of the bases of flora that originated in Laurasia, Gondwana, and the Ancient Mediterranean Sea. Its animals include a majority of species that can be traced back to the Palaearctic Realm and the Oriental Region. Apart from fishes, there are approximately 2,619 varieties of vertebrate, of which 581 are mammals; 1,331, birds; 412, reptiles; and 295, amphibians. China has about 2,200 varieties of bryophytes and 2,200 to 2,600 varieties of

The Nanjiabawa Peak in Tibet has an evident vertical distribution chain of animals and plants. It is also known as the “World’s Natural Museum of Mountainous Vegetation Type.”

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ferns. It has abundant varieties of gymnosperm in 250 species, 34 genus, and 10 families. Meanwhile, more than 30,000 species of angiosperms in 3,123 genus and 328 families can be found here. The variety of insects that have been found in China stands at 3,000. Besides, Chinese species have a higher endemicity. Among vertebrates, there are 667 endemic species, and 17,300 out of 30,000-odd higher plants are also endemic species. The panda, golden monkey, Tibetan antelope, browneared pheasant, Yangtze alligator, cathay fir, dove tree, and spinulosa are all endemic and ancient species of China.

The primary forest of Shennongjia, Hubei, has beautiful scenery, pleasant climate, and many precious wild animal and plant species.

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Diversified Economic Species, Domesticated Species, and Their Wild Relatives China is one of three original centers of cultivated plants in the world. Chinese farmers have cultivated and bred diversified plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Rice, soybeans, millets, apples, pears, plums, persimmons, kiwi fruits, lichees, longans, and loquats have all originated from China. At the same time, there are abundant wild relatives of these cultivated plants, such as wild rice, wild barley, wild soybean, wild tea, and wild apple. Since China’s biological diversity occupies a unique position in the world, its protection is crucial. Till date, China has framed its law and regulation system to protect biological diversity and has carried out several important ecological projects including returning farmlands to forests, returning grazing lands to grasslands, returning farmlands to lakes, protecting natural forests and wild life, constructing natural reserves, and issuing and implementing “China’s Action Plan for the Maintenance of Aquatic Life” and the “Program for the Protection and Management of National Biological Species Resources.” Around 85% of natural land biological systems, 47% of natural wetlands, and 20% of natural forests remain. In addition, 65% of advanced plant communities and most national-level rare and endangered species of flora and fauna are under effective protection. It cannot be denied that the protection of biological diversity in China still faces several problems and severe challenges. The tendency to reduce biodiversity is hard to change in a short span of time. That the habitats of some important species are threatened and the loss of genetic resources are hardly optimistic situations. According to relevant reports, about 4,000 to 5,000 advanced plants are in danger or are being threatened in China. These account for 15% to 20% of China’s advanced plants.

Construction of Natural Reserves, Zoos, and Botanical Gardens After establishing the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Government has always stressed the importance of protecting China’s biological diversity. It has promulgated a series of laws and regulations, established natural reserves, zoos, botanical gardens and artificial propagation bases, and has participated in international initiatives on biological diversity protection.

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15,188.2 14,994.9 15,153.5 14,894.3

14,822.6 14,398.0 12,672.0

2,531 2,538 2,349 2,395

2,194 1,999 12,300.0 1,757

1,276 6,618.4 763 400 2,000.0 1 0.1

106 45 19 64.9 126.5 390.0

1956 1965 1978 1982 1987 1993 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Source: National Environmental Statistics Bulletin, Ministry of Environmental Protection; China Environmental Almanac, China Environmental Science.

The development of China’s nature reserve: quantity and area

The main measures for protecting species diversity include on-the-spot protection and out-of-spot protection. On-the-spot protection requires building natural reserves, while out-of-spot protection can be realized by establishing zoos, botanical gardens, and artificial propagation bases for rare or endangered animals and plants. The building of natural reserves is one of the most important, costeffective, and effective measures to protect the ecology, biological diversity, and natural resources. At the end of 2008, China established 2,538 natural reserves at all levels covering a total area of 148.943 million hectares. Of these, 303 are state-level natural reserves and cover 91.203 million hectares. As of 2009, China has 2,529 natural reserves. The state-level natural reserves constitute 319 of these. In China, there are 28 natural reserves joining The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) “international man and biosphere reserve network.” Among these, more than 20 reserves are part of the world natural heritages sites. China has a good national natural reserve network that is fairly complete, has a reasonable layout, and functions effectively. This is especially true given that all the nationally protected key rare and endangered wild plant and animal species have been effectively protected in the nature reserves.

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Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan is famous as the “Hometown of the Giant Panda.”

The Bird Island Nature Reserve in Qinghai Lake, Qinghai Province, is a sanctuary for many migratory birds.

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The Hoh Xil Nature Reserve in Qinghai, China. The Tibetan antelope—endemic to China—can be found in this nature reserve.

China has more than 250 wild animal rescue and breeding bases and 400-odd wild plant idioplasmic resource cultivation or genetic preservation centers. They allow more than 200 rare and endangered wild animals and 1,000-odd wild plants to grow in stable artificial populations. In addition, China has also set up 14 breeding and rescue centers for rare animals such as

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the panda, the Hainan Eld’s deer, the Yangtze alligator, Père David’s Deer, the saiga, the mustang, and the Northeast tiger. Thanks to the wildlife protection sanctuaries such as the establishment of natural reserves, zoos, and botanical gardens, the habitats of endangered species have been reserved and rebuilt. As a result, the population of these animals is stable.

Protection of Rare and Endangered Species The protection of China’s biological diversity focuses on rare and endangered species. In China, rare species such as the golden monkey, crested ibis, Yangtze alligator, gingko, Metasequoia, and silver fir are also well protected, apart from the world-famous panda. The giant panda is a precious species. Today, the wild panda can only be found in the bamboo groves of 40 counties in the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces of China. Known as a “living fossil,” the panda is a national treasure and a world heritage specie. The Chinese Government has greatly invested in the protection of the panda, with notable results. Since 1963, China has established 62 panda natural reserves, home to

The giant panda in its nature reserve.

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1,590 wild pandas at present. At the same time, studies on feeding and breeding pandas have also been diversified. By 2006, China had 30 artificially bred pandas—a historic high. Now, the figure has grown to 215. Known as the home of the panda, Baoxing County is located in the transitional area between the Western Sichuan Plain and the Tibetan Plateau. In 1869, Jean Pierre Armand David, a French missionary and also a natural historian, discovered a panda in Dengchigou of Baoxing County for the first time. The people of Baoxing have made great contributions to protecting the panda, especially in rescuing sick and hungry pandas and creating a better living environment for them. In 1983, the bamboos began to die, threatening the existence of the pandas. Soon thereafter, Wang Quanan, a villager from Baoxing County, fed some sick and hungry pandas. One day, a hungry panda came down the mountain looking for food. It found a pan of cornmeal mush in Wang’s kitchen and ate it up. Wang discovered this but did not scare the panda away. Gradually, the panda starting visiting Wang’s kitchen every night and Wang even started preparing cornmeal mush and bones for the panda every night. On the morning of March 1984, Ang Kabing, a 12-year-old Tibetan boy found a panda lying in a bush on his way to school. The boy did not disturb it but ran back and told Zhang Shaohua, the head of the local militias, about this. Based on his previous experience, Zhang guessed that the panda was probably hungry and asked the young boy to send some food for it. Zhang also reported the situation to the local government. The boy fed the hungry panda with cornbread that was prepared for his breakfast and also lit a fire to keep the panda warm. Under his care, the panda recovered. The next day, veterinaries and Tibetan militias sent the panda to a natural reserve. The panda rescue group of Baoxing County cited the young boy for his kindness. These are just a few of the many incidents of the people of Baoxing rescuing the sick, hungry, and injured pandas. Most of the 119 pandas that China reallocated from Baoxing have recovered from sickness, hunger, and injury. The snub-nosed golden monkey is a primate species that belongs to the genus Rhinopithecus in the family Cercopithecidae. Chinese golden monkeys are mostly distributed across Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. Merely 1,000 of the Yunnan snub-nosed golden monkeys that inhabit the fir forest on the snow mountain straddling the Yunnan-Tibet border now survive. The Guizhou snub-nosed golden monkeys can only be found in their native habitat and currently, only 700 of these survive. The Sichuan snub-nosed golden monkeys more familiar to people are distributed in the deep mountains and forests in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hubei, and Gansu. They are social animals and can be seen climbing and jumping between the trees. The three varieties of the snubnosed golden monkeys are all listed as state-level protected animals (Class I).

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The Yunnan snub-nosed golden monkey and the Guizhou snub-nosed golden monkey are both classified as Level-EN (Endangered) in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. On the list, the Sichuan snub-nosed golden monkey is classified at the VU level (Vulnerable). Therefore, China has established several natural reserves for each variety. For example, the Baimashan National Natural Reserve of Yunnan is meant for protecting the Yunnan snub-nosed golden monkeys and the Fanjingshan National Natural Reserve is established for the Guizhou snub-nosed golden monkeys. The Zhouzhi National Natural Reserve of Shaanxi and the Shengnongjia National Natural Reserve of Hubei have been established for the Sichuan snub-nosed golden monkeys. With the establishment of natural reserves, the increase in people’s awareness of wildlife protection, and the progress of artificial breeding, snub-nosed golden monkeys can be found in increasingly larger areas nowadays. Their population is also expanding. The crested ibis is an endemic wild bird of East Asia and can currently be found in China, ROK, Japan, and Russia. However, in the 1960s, they could not be found anywhere. In the 1970s, Chinese ornithologists began to search for them and at last, in 1981, found seven surviving in Yaojiagou of Yangxian County, Shaanxi. The discovery shocked the world. Since then, China has begun to protect crested ibises and conduct scientific studies on them. These studies have helped in the breeding of these birds. A tribute to these efforts was

The Yunnan Snub-Nosed Golden Monkey, Yunnan.

The Sichuan Snub-Nosed Golden Monkey, Shennongjia, Hubei.

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The crested ibis at Shaanxi Ningshan Crested Ibis Wildering and Letting Base.

the hatching of the first artificially incubated crested ibises in 1989. By 2006, there were more than 1,000 crested ibises in China. Their existence marks one of China’s miraculous rescues of wildlife. The Yangtze alligator, endemic to China, is the only crocodile species that is distributed in temperate zones and can be traced back to ancient times. The Yangtze alligator, which can attain the length of two meters, is a good swimmer. It lives in the water and nests in dense brushwood along rivers. China has established the National Yangtze Alligator Natural Reserve in Anhui and the Changxing Provincial Yangtze Alligator Natural Reserve in Zhejiang. Since wild Yangtze alligators are very rarely seen, China has taken measures to protect and breed them artificially. Their population has now grown, putting them out of the danger of extinction. Père David’s Deer is endemic to China and can be found in wetland habitats. In the 1900s, it was extinct in its native habitat. Fortunately, some of the deer survived in Europe and were held in captivity at Woburn Abbey in the United Kingdom. In 1985, 39 Père David’s Deer were introduced from overseas. Gradually, as their numbers grew, they were released into the wild under the “Reintroduction Program.” By June 12, 2006, the Jiangsu Dafeng Père David’s Deer Natural Reserve had 1,007 Père David’s Deer and has grown to be

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the first natural reserve with more than 1,000 Père David’s Deer worldwide. The “Reintroduction Program” demonstrates China’s achievements in protecting wildlife. It also shows the possibility and necessity of harmonious development between humans and nature. The Dafeng reserve started to release animals into the wild since 1998 and there are 118 animals living in wild now. The Hainan Eld’s Deer is a state-level protected animal (Class I) and classified at the EN level in the IUCN Red List. In China, it can only be found in Hainan Island. In the 1970s, the number of Hainan Eld’s Deer had dropped to 26 and they had to be transferred to the Hainan Datian National Natural Reserve. With successful studies in feeding and breeding, the population of Hainan Eld’s deer has been gradually expanding. In 2003, the Hainan Wildlife Natural

The Eld’s deer living in the Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park.

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Reserve began to transfer Hainan Eld’s Deer to the plains and forests in Baisha, Tunchang, Danzhou, and Wenchang. This led to a clean-bred population of the Hainan Eld’s Deer. By 2007, 1,785 Hainan Eld’s Deer were saved from extinction. The Hainan Eld’s deer is recognized as one of the fastest-growing species amongst those that have benefited from China’s wildlife protection efforts. The Northeast tiger, the largest existing feline, is distributed in Lesser Khingan Range (the Xiaoxing’anling forest region) and Changbai Moutain in Northeast China. Known as “the king of the forest,” it has a strong body and is very agile. Today, there are only 20 wild Northeast tigers in China. They are listed as state-level protected animals (class I) and classified at the EN level in the IUCN Red List. China banned the hunting and killing of Northeast tigers in the 1950s. In 1958, Fenglin Korean Pine Natural Reserve was established in Heilongjiang—the home base of the Northeast tigers. In 2005, a national-level natural reserve was founded in the Northeast tiger habitat in Huichun, Jilin. Furthermore, the Northeast Tiger Artificial Feeding and Breeding Base, which was founded in 1986, aims to study the feeding and breeding techniques of the Northeast tigers. Currently, the base has more than 620 Northeast tigers. By means of on-the-spot protection and artificial breeding, their numbers have increased and they have been saved from the brink of extinction. Ginkgo, metasequoia, and silver fir are rare Chinese species. They are considered to be national treasures and living fossils. They were widely distributed in the northern hemisphere but the Pleistocene glaciation caused the extinction of many species in most regions. Only the ginkgo in the western part of China’s Zhejiang mountainous areas; the metasequoia in the mountain gullies of the borderland of Sichuan and Hubei provinces; and the silver fir in the eastern part of the Dalou Mountain in Guangxi and Sichuan provinces and the branch ranges of the Yuecheng Mountains have survived and have become very precious plant species. The ginkgo is commonly known as the ginkgo nut or the maidenhair tree. Wild ginkgo is distributed in the subtropical monsoon region. It is not native only to China. However, China is the first country to cultivate, utilize, and study it with fruitful results. At present, China’s Nature Reserves in the Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang and the Dabie Mountain and Mt. Shennongjia in Hubei are aimed at protecting the wild ginkgo. In the 1940s, a surviving metasequoia found in China created a stir around the world. The Xingdoushan Nature Reserve in Hubei Province built in 1988 aims to protect wild metasequoia communities and their environment. At present, more than 50 countries have introduced metasequoia from China. The silver fir is of a monotypic genus found in the 1950s in China, and initially distributed in Huaping, Longsheng County; Jinfo Mountain, Nanchuan County, Sichuan Province. So far, the known silver firs are distributed in 10 counties of Guangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces over 30 distribution

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Siwan Lake, Jinhu County, Jiangsu Province. The metasequoia woods here are a sanctuary for the egrets.

areas. The local governments and relevant departments are very serious about protecting the silver firs. At present, nature reserves have been established to protect the silver firs in Huaping, Guangxi, and Jinfo Mountain in Sichuan. Not all the rare and endangered species were fortunate to survive extinction. The South China tiger, also known as the Chinese tiger, has been extinct in the wild for a long time. There are only 100 animals left in the zoos and breeding bases. An individual claimed to have taken photographs of the wild South China tiger in Shaanxi. However, these proved to be false claims.

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People’s attention to the story signaled their concern for the tigers. Not only the South China tiger, but also the fate of the Chinese river dolphin, another species endemic to China, is worrying people. There were 300 left in 1986 and only 7 left in 1998. In recent years, they have not been spotted. The Tibetan antelope’s fate is unfortunately the same.

Invasive Biology Control “Biological invasion” is when a biological species is naturally or artificially introduced into an area where it does not belong and thus impacts the indigenous species. Biological invasion is one of the factors that threaten biological diversity. At present, China has more than 400 kinds of alien species, 100 of which may be quite hazardous. China has more than 50 of the world’s 100 most threatening invasive alien species (as classified by the IUCN). Since the 21st century, the Chinese government has acquired a better understanding of biological invasion and has strengthened the security management of invasive species through a variety of channels such as multisectoral cooperation and participation in international cooperation. In 2003, the State Environmental Protection Administration and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly issued the list of the First Group of Alien Invasive Species in China including 16 families such as the crofton weed, ragweed, smooth cord-grass, American white moth, and apple snail. In 2005, the Ministry of Agriculture formulated and promulgated the Emergency Scheme on Major Agricultural Pests and Invasive Biological Species. On September 6, 2005, China officially joined the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety. The Chinese government launched a nationwide investigation of invasive alien species and their control, and established alien species databases and monitoring systems. In 2005, the relevant departments collected data on more than 300 alien invasive species, established the database of Invasive Alien Species in China, and drew up China’s Agricultural and Forest Invasive Alien Species List. In 2006, the Chinese government carried out an investigation on the harmful alien species in the 26 state-level nature reserves and rooted out the alien invasive species in an area of 1.443 million Mu. Multi-sectoral collaboration and significant progress in the control of biological invasion has helped China protect its bio-diversity and secure its ecology. In January 2010, the State Environmental Protection Administration together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences released an updated list of future biological invaders which included 10 plant species such as the common lantana and the giant ragweed and 9 animals such as the blue gum chalcid and red imported fire ant.

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The First Group Vegetation

Animals

The Second Group Vegetation

Animal

List of alien invasive species in China

Spartina alterniflora Loisel, also known as smooth cordgrass, is one of the first group of blacklisted invasive plants. Smooth cord-grass is a species of cordgrass that originated in southern England and is known for its saline alkali tolerance, submergence tolerance, and its developed root system. From the 1960s to the 1980s, China introduced such species from Britain, the United States, and other countries to withstand the wind and waves and protect beaches and banks. However, it brought about an ecological imbalance, chocking the waterways and causing the death of marine life by suffocation due to intensive growth. China has more than 50 millions Mu of smooth cordgrass. Over the years, the Chinese have tried to eradicate this grass by means of sabers, digging, fire, and dicamba, but have met with little success. With the support of the government, the Chinese scientists embarked on a study of the comprehensive integration treatment and utilization of the smooth cordgrass. The program team from the Fujian Agriculture and Foresty University discovered that the best way is to cut it from beneath the soil. After experimentation, some experts successfully extracted polysaccharide from the smooth cordgrass. Polysaccharide has been identified as a good medicine and a health food. Scientists have also found that smooth cord-grass serves as a biofuel. According to the test results, using one acre grass to generate electricity can save 1 to 1.5 tons of standard coal. Once this technology is put to use, controlling the smooth cordgrass is expected to become more effective.

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Smooth cordgrass beseiging the mangroves, Fu’an City, Fujian Province.

Active Participation in the Protection of Global Biodiversity As human society has progressed, the protection of biological diversity has become a long-term, arduous task. Every country is responsible for protecting biological diversity and its recuperation. The Chinese government attaches great importance to international cooperation and coordination in the protection of bio-diversity. In 1993, it joined the Convention on Biological Diversity and formulated the Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation in China, establishing a coordination team that comprised 24 related departments to follow the Convention. It took active part in the Convention meetings (9 such meetings) and played an important role in the negotiation process. This helped on the biological diversity protection front. Currently, China has 22 member units enforcing the Convention on Biological Diversity. In 2004, the Chinese government organized and prepared the National Biological Conservation and Use plan. In 2006, China launched the China Biodiversity Partnership Framework and China-EU biodiversity projects. On May 22, the International Day for Biological Diversity, China carried out a variety of publicity and educational activities to raise the awareness on environmental

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The Sino-European Biodiversity Protection Cooperation Project signing ceremony, Beijing, November 7, 2005.

FYI


CONVENTION ON BIO LO G IC AL DIV ER SITY

An international convention focusing on protecting the biological resources on the earth was adopted during the Seventh Meeting of the Inter-governmental Negotiation Committee sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program on June 1, 1992, and was signed by the signatory countries at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 5, 1992. Taking effect formally on December 29, 1993, this legally binding convention aims at protecting the endangered plants and animals in order to maximize protection for the various biological resources on the earth and benefit the current and future generations. At present, this convention has 189 signatory countries and is the environmental convention with the most signatory countries in the world. China joined this convention on January 5, 1993.

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protection and conservation of biological diversity. The biodiversity information network and monitoring system has been built with continuous focus. The relevant policy and law framework has been expanded and biodiversity protection has been promoted and China’s influence has increased. In 2010, which is defined as the year of biological diversity by the UN, China has and will continue to modify and release the Strategy and Action Plan for Biological Diversity Protection; try to coordinate the relationship between social economic development and biological diversity; strengthen the communication and collaboration between all units of the coordination team; and encourage public participation and international cooperation in order to realize the aims put forward by the Convention on Biological Diversity, which include protection of diversity, sustainable usage of the environment, and sharing the mutual benefits equally.

4

Chapter 4

Control and Treatment of Pollution

Air pollution was the first environmental problem to be recognized by China. After nearly 40 years of development, China has deepened its understanding of this problem. Energy-saving and emission-reduction have been important tasks on the 11th Five Year Plan agenda. Reduction in energy consumption and the total emissions of major pollutants has become a significant and binding metric upon which the development and progress of a harmonious socialist society can be built. Such a choice is inevitable for a society that prizes energyefficiency and environmental sustainability and is the only way that humanity can move forward. In recent years, the Chinese government put forth the implementation of a comprehensive scheme for energy-saving and emissionreduction, and issued national proposals to deal with climate change. These policies have enabled China to consistently strengthen its control and management of pollution and achieve remarkable results in energy-saving and emission-reduction. All the targets of the 10th Five Year Environmental Protection Plan have not been met though. Up to 2005, the emissions of sulfur dioxide increased by 27.8% as compared with those in 2000, and chemical oxygen demand only reduced by 2.1%, which is far less than the target of 10%. In 2007, China formulated the 11th Five Year National Environmental Protection Plan, placing the prevention and control of pollution as the most important target and the reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) as binding targets. In other words, the government needs to ensure the realization of the targets by reasonably deploying public resources and making effective use of its administrative powers in order to ensure that by 2010, the emission 81

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CHINA’S ENVIORNMENT

volumes of these two pollutants will decrease by 10% as compared with those in 2005. In 2007, in order to the strengthen environmental supervision and management, and improve scientific decision-making and emission reduction, during the 11th Five Year Plan, China decided to start the first general investigation on pollution sources so as to ascertain the absolute value of countrywide pollution emissions. China’s environmental protection measures have entered into a new phase. In the first four years of the 11th Five Year Plan, China made great strides in pollution governance and emission reduction.

Air Pollution Control and Treatment China’s 11th Five Year Plan requires that by 2010, the levels of COD and SO2 are reduced by 10% as compared with those in 2005. This implies that the COD will be reduced from 14.142 million tons (2005) to 12.728 million tons and SO2 emissions will decrease from 25.494 million tons to 22.944 million tons (2005). Through the implementation of desulphurization units in electric power plants and the construction of urban sewage disposal plants, the total emission

10,000 tons ,

,

Total emission volume of SO2

,

,

,

Total emission volume of COD

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

Source: National Environmental Statistics Bulletin, Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Total emission volume of SO2 & COD in China from 2004 to 2008

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of SO2 and COD in China were both reduced for the first time in 2007. These two indexes declined in 2008 as well, and SO2 emissions stood at 23.212 million tons, reduced by 5.95% as compared with 2007 and by 8.95% as compared with 2005. This also meant that in general, the air quality in cities was good and improved. However, it cannot be denied that the pollution in some cities of China is still very serious and the problem of acid rain is quite severe. A total of 519 cities in China reported the air quality during 2008, including 21 Class I standard cities (accounting for 4.0%); 378 Class II standard cities (72.8%); 113 Class III standard cities (21.8%); and only 7 cities lower than Class III standard (1.4%). The air quality in 113 key cities improved, and the concentration of SO2 and inhalable particulate matter was reduced to some extent. In addition to the reduction in SO2 emissions, the discharge of smoke dust and industrial dust stood at 9.016 million tons and 5.849 tons, respectively. This implied a reduction of 8.6% and 16.3%, respectively, as compared with 2007. The overall reduction in major emissions indicates that China has made significant progress in air pollution control and abatement. Of the 477 cities (counties) monitored by the environmental authorities, 252 cities, which accounted for 52.8%, witnessed acid rain; 164 cities with

Visitors looking at the model of a desulfuration and dedusting device set at the first energysaving technologies and products professional market that was opened in Hangzhou in December 2006.

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the frequency of acid rain above 25% stood at 34.4%; and 55 cities with the frequency of acid rain above 75% made up 11.5%. Cities with acid rain were mainly concentrated in areas to the south of the Yangtze River and the east of Sichuan and Yunnan, including most areas in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Chongqing as well as areas in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Research indicates that, the exploration, transportation, and utilization of coal greatly pollutes the air. Coal has become the largest source of air pollution in China. The spontaneous combustion of coal is responsible for 70% of smoke dust discharge, 85% of SO2 emissions, 67% of nitrogen oxide, and 80% of CO2. Nitrogen oxide and SO2 also cause acid rain. Therefore, strengthening controls on coal exploration and combustion is the principal means of controlling air pollution and abatement. Engineering emission reductions, structural emission reductions, and supervising emission reductions are mainly applied in China to reduce the emission of air pollutants such as SO2. In 2008, China’s new coal-burning desulphurization capacity was 97.12 million KW, the installed capacity of desulphurization units reached 363 million KW, and the proportion of thermal power generating units equipped with desulphurization devices to total thermal power generating units increased from 48% (in 2007) to 60%. In addition, a batch of steel sintering machine flue gas desulphurization facilities was newly built. During 2008, more than 1,100 heavily-polluting paper enterprises were eliminated and their operations were suspended for consolidation; 16.69 million KW Small thermal power units were closed; and old-school production facilities in steel, non ferrous, cement, carbon coke, chemical industry, printing and dyeing, and alcohol were rendered obsolete in China. By strengthening statistics and monitoring emissions reduction and improving law enforcement and regulation, the emission standards of enterprises were increasing steadily, and the overall desulphurization efficiency of coal burning desulphurization units improved from 73.2% (in 2007) to 78.7%. In 2008, China issued the appraisal results of total emission reduction of major pollutants in provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government and five big electric power groups. Further, it issued the emissions index communiqué of major pollutants in provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government that made decisions such as construction suspension, environmental impact evaluation, rectification and change in due course, or economic punishment for areas and enterprises with serious environment problems. Meanwhile, local governments at various levels also further changed course to actively reduce emissions. They took multiple accountability measures to strongly push the development of the reduction in pollution emissions. For example, the city

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The technicians of Guangdong power enterprises visiting the generator unit desulfuration device in Zhenjiang City in October 2007.

(county) principals unable to attain annual targets would be discharged in some areas, while for counties and districts that did not try their best to reduce emissions, the approval of new projects would be halted. Some provinces and cities were provided with financial subsidies to support enterprises that eliminated obsolete production facilities. Some areas encouraged enterprises by incentivizing pollution reduction. In order to control vehicle emission pollution, China has officially implemented Limits and Measurement Methods for Emissions from Light-duty Vehicles (III, IV) (GB18352.3-2005) (“national standard III” for short) since July 1, 2008. Beijing has enforced the national standard IV (equal to the European standard IV) in two stages since March 1, 2008. This also improves air quality. In the first half of 2009, the emission of major pollutants in China was still decreasing (SO2 emissions were 11.478 million tons, reduced by 5.40% as compared with 2008) with air pollution control and treatment maintaining a good trend. At present, China is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States; therefore, China faces great pressure from the international community to reduce its emissions. However, the greenhouse gas emission of China is

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historically low with the per capita emissions always being lower than the world average. This is 87% of the world average level or 33% that of the OECD countries. With regard to the emissions per capita, the historical accumulated emissions, or historical accumulated emissions per capita, China emits significantly below the developed countries and does not need to bear the burden of emissions reduction alone. However, as a responsible, developing country and given the considerations of energy security and the threat of climate changes, with a national perspective in mind, China has proceeded to take a series of policies and measures that have helped and will help make positive contributions to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and the slowing down of climate change. The Chinese government has made great efforts to readjust the country’s industrial structure and reduce energy consumption. Between 1991 and 2005, China reduced the annual average growth rate of energy consumption to 5.6%, with the national economy growing at an average rate of 10.2% annually. Decreasing energy consumption reduces emissions. Burning one ton of coal produces 40 kg of carbon dioxide, 9 kg of nitrogen dioxide, and 100 kg of ash. Between 1991 and 2005, China saved around 800 million tons of coal equivalent on a quarter-to-quarter basis in 15 years by economic restructuring and upgrading energy efficiency. On the basis of 1994, when each ton of coal

Vehicles on the streets of Beijing.

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equivalent produced 2,277 tons of carbon dioxide, saving 800 million tons of coal equivalent reduces 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. While reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the Chinese government has vigorously carried out forest planting programs to enhance the sustainability of the environment. In 2008, the green coverage ratio in urban areas reached 35.11% and the per capita public greenbelt area hit 8.6 sq m. Green spaces play a special role in absorbing carbon dioxide in the air. According to estimates, between 1980 and 2005, China’s afforestation activities absorbed around 3.06 billion tons of carbon dioxide, and forest management activities absorbed 1.62 billion tons of carbon dioxide and reduced 430 million tons of carbon dioxide from deforestation.

Control and Treatment of Water Pollution China has always attached importance to the control and treatment of water pollution, especially the safety of drinking water. In 2009, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Supervision, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Housing and UrbanRural Development and Ministry of Water Resources jointly finished evaluating

Workers fishing out the aquatic weeds and garbage from Dianchi Lake, Yunnan, November 2009.

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water pollution prevention and treatment of 2008 in 21 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across the key drainage areas including the Haihe River, the Liaohe River, the three gorges reservoir area and its upper reaches, the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, Chaohu Lake, Dianchi Lake, and Taihu Lake. The evaluation indicated that the water pollution prevention and treatment work of key drainage areas in 2008 was progressing well. The water quality of 70% of the sections attained the required standard when monitored, and 40% of the planned pollution treatment projects were completed. However, the pollution treatment situation was still very severe and the task of improving water quality was still very difficult. Since China’s 11th Five Year Plan, the local governments in the key drainage areas, such as the Haihe River, have become more organized and have led the prevention of water pollution and treatment, reduced the principal water pollutants, improved environmental quality, and rapidly constructed water treatment projects. By the end of 2008, among the 115 evaluation sections determined in the 11th Five Year Plan, 80 regions attained the required standard in terms of water quality, accounting for 69.6% of the total number. Among the 1,834 water pollution treatment projects listed in the 11th Five Year Plan, 773 projects were completed accounting for 42.1% of the total number,

An ecological polluted water treatment plant located in Jiaoxie Town, Haian County, Jiangsu Province.

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and 500 projects were in progress, which accounted for 27.3% of the total number. Among all the projects, the projects in the Haihe River drainage area made quicker progress, and those in the Three Gorges reservoir area and its upper reaches made slower progress. In 2008, the total national chemical oxygen demand emission volume related to water pollution control and treatment was approximately 13.207 million tons, reduced by 4.42% as compared with the previous year and 6.61% as compared with 2005. In the first half of 2009, the total national chemical oxygen demand emission volume was 6.576 million tons, reduced by 2.46% than in the same period in 2008. Although there are still many problems (for instance, the operational efficiency of urban polluted water treatment facilities is low and ammonia nitrogen [total nitrogen] pollution is a serious issue), we can still say that China’s water pollution prevention and treatment work is becoming more serious. In 2007, the whole country increased its urban water treatment capacity to about 7 million tons/day, which included the approximately 4 million tons/ day capacity that was acquired through the improvement of the pipe network facilities. Over 1,400 key enterprises reduced their pollutant emissions by adopting superior treatment measures and the task of eliminating the lagging productivity of the paper-making, brewery, and saponin industries made substantial progress. In 2008, the whole country increased its urban water treatment capacity to 11.49 million tons/day, established a batch of complex treatment projects of waste water, and continued reducing the number of obsolete units. By the end of 2009, the daily treatment capacity of China’s urban water treatment plants reached 86.64 million cubic meters, an increase of 6.9% as compared to the previous year. The treatment rate of urban water reached 72.3%, an increase of 2.1% and the central heating area reached 3.56 billion square meters, an increase of 2.0%. All these factors jointly promoted the reduction of China’s chemical oxygen demand emission volumes. With the development of the first national general survey of pollution sources, people realized that the chemical oxygen demand emission volumes from agricultural pollutants (such as fertilizers, farm insecticides, and straw) may exceed those of the industrial pollution sources, causing serious pollution to water bodies. This has aroused the attention of the environmental departments.

Control and Treatment of Other Pollutants As compared with the 1970s and the 1980s, Chinese citizens today possess a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of the environment and have begun to pay attention to other pollutants such as noise, light, and radiation.

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In accordance with the information released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, in 2008, the sound pollution was low, being rated as good or fairly good in 71.7% of the urban areas in the country, or in 75.2% of the key cities. Sound pollution due to road traffic was good in 65.3% of the cities, and was good or fairly good in the key cities. In various functional areas of the city, the day time standard limit attained was 86.4% and the night standard limit attained was 74.7%. Among 392 cities under environmental noise monitoring, the number of cities having low sound pollution accounted for 7.2%, those having fairly good sound accounted for 64.5%, those having light sound pollution accounted for 27.3%, and those with mid-level sound pollution accounted for 1.0%. As compared with the previous year, the number of cities having low sound pollution increased by 1.2%, those having fairly low sound pollution decreased by 1.7%, those with light sound pollution increased by 0.9%, and the number of cities with mid-level sound pollution decreased by 0.4%. Among the 384 cities under road traffic noise monitoring, the urban road sound pollution due to traffic was low in 65.3% cities and fairly low in 27.1% cities. There was light pollution in 4.2% cities, mid-level pollution in 2.9% cities, and heavy pollution in 0.5% cities. As compared with the previous year, the number of cities with low road traffic sound pollution increased by 6.7%, those with fairly low sound pollution decreased by 6.7%, those with light sound pollution decreased by 1.5%, those having mid-level sound pollution increased by 1.8%, and those with the heavy sound pollution decreased by 0.3%. This year, China newly revised the Standards of Sound Environment Quality (GB 3096–2008) and Emission Standards for Industrial Enterprises Noise at the Boundary (GB 12348–2008). The newly formulated Emission Standards for Social Living Environment Noise (GB 22337–2008) were implemented on October 1, 2008. In accordance with these new standards, China has expanded the scope of sound environment quality standards from urban to the rural areas and is regulating, for the first time, the limiting values, monitoring, and evaluation methods of low frequencies noises. In 2008, environmental radiation in China was generally low. The environmental ionizing radiation level has been kept stable, and areas surrounding nuclear facilities and equipment have low levels of ionizing radiation. The environmental electromagnetic radiation level was generally good; however, the partial environmental comprehensive electrical field strength of some highpower emission facilities such as TV (frequency modulation) emission towers, and medium wave broadcasting emission station exceeded the national standard. In order to strengthen the monitoring of radiation pollution, on the basis of the first batch of national monitoring points of the national radiation environmental monitoring net, China established 11 automatic radiation

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The law enforcement officials of Shandong Wudi County Environmental Protection Bureau conducting noise monitoring at a construction site on June 3, 2008.

stations in key cities, 10 land radiation monitoring points, 38 water-body monitoring points, and also newly established nuclear environment safety warning monitoring points around 4 important nuclear and radiation facilities. China established 43 electromagnetic environment quality monitoring points

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for the first time, and also established 41 electromagnetic monitoring points around 41 key electromagnetic radiation facilities. In addition, China also strengthened the construction of the emergency monitoring system for nuclear and radiation emergencies. The following figures need to be paid attention to. In 2008, the production of national industrial solid waste was 1,901.27 million tons, an increase of 8.3% over the previous year. The emission of national industrial solid waste was 7.82 million tons, a decrease of 34.7% over the previous year. The comprehensively used volume (including the use of storage volume in the past years), the storage volume, and the disposal volume were 1,234.82 million tons, 218.83 million tons, and 482.91 million tons, respectively, accounting for 64.9%, 11.5%, and 25.4% of the production volume, respectively. The production volume of hazardous wastes was 13.57 million tons, and its comprehensively used volume (including the use of storage volume in the past years), the storage volume, and disposal volume were 8.19 million tons, 1.96 million tons, and 3.89 million tons, respectively.

Energy Saving, Consumption Reduction, and Renewable Energy Resources In recent years, China made progress in energy saving and consumption reduction. As compared to 2.68 tons of coal equivalent in 1990, the energy consumption for every RMB 10,000 of China’s GDP stood at 1.26 tons of coal equivalent in 2006, down by 1.33% from 2005. It is the first decrease of per unit energy consumption of China’s GDP since 2003. The per unit energy consumption in China’s GDP decreased by 2.78% on a year-on-year basis in the first half of the year 2007. It decreased in the successive four quarters. In 2008, the energy consumption per RMB 10,000 of GDP decreased by 4.59% as compared with the previous year. The decrease of per unit energy consumption in China’s GDP is due to the increase in industrial energy efficiency. In the first half of the year 2007, among the 35 kinds of major products, 31 kinds of products experienced a decrease in comprehensive energy consumption. The energy saved reached 21.45 million tons of coal equivalent. The comprehensive energy consumption of 17 products from seven high energy-consuming industries (power, steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals, chemicals, building materials, and paper) decreased to different degrees and the energy saved reached 19 million tons of coal equivalent. As for energy conservation, depending solely on the active promotion and guidance of governments and implementing extensive industrial and mining

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Tons of standard coal per 10,000 RMB GDP

Source: Bulletin for Unit GDP Energy Consumption and Targets of Each Province, Autonomous Region and Municipality in 2007 and 2008 issued by National Bureau of Statistics, National Development and Reform Commission, and National Energy Bureau jointly.

National unit GDP energy consumption from 2005 to 2008

100 million tons of standard coal

Total energy consump ion

Year-on-year growth

Source: National Annual Statistics Bulletin issued by National Bureau of Statistics over the years.

The total energy consumption volume of China from 2003 to 2009

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enterprises are not enough. It also needs the support and participation of the society as a whole, especially the urban and rural residents. In order to carry out the General Work Plan for Energy Saving and Emission Reduction and further enhance society’s awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection, China organized the development of “Energy Saving and Emission Reduction, Common Action” for the entire country in 2007. In order to promote further energy saving and emissions reduction and foster the coordination between environmental protection and economic development, the use of new and renewable green energies is a good choice. In recent years, China has made rapid development in using wind energy, solar energy, and biomass energy. The wind power connected grid was developed during the 1980s. Wind power developed rapidly and the installed capacity of wind power increased from 350,000 kW to 2.60 million kW between 2000 and 2006, increasing at an annual rate of more than 30%. China’s installed wind power capacity ranked tenth worldwide in 2004 and rose to sixth by the end of 2006. In general, the development of China’s wind power connected grid can be divided into three stages: the demonstration stage (1986–1992), characterized by small demonstration wind plants built mainly on overseas donations and loans; the industrial construction stage (1994–2003), during which the grid authorities allowed wind power plants to go live and purchase electricity in accordance with national regulations issued in 1994; the scale-up and home-made stage (2003– present), during which the National Development and Reform Commission has promoted wind power projects, improving the manufacturing capacity of homemade equipment and reducing electricity prices. The first offshore wind power station independently designed, developed and manufactured by China National Offshore Oil Corporation was put into operation in November 2007, marking a substantial breakthrough made by China in the offshore wind power industry. This power station is located in the 36-1 oil field, which is 70 km offshore and 30 m deep in water. The power capacity is 4.4 million kwhs. Diesel consumption will reduce by 1,100 tons annually. Moreover, the emissions of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide will decrease by 3,500 and 11 tons per year, respectively. In the past two years, China’s wind power industry has developed rapidly. Up to the end of 2008, there were 11,869 wind turbine generators and the installed capacity was about 12.21 million kwhs— exceeding the target of 10 million kwhs in 2010 in the original plan. In 2008, China was second only to the United States, ranking No. 2 in the world. At present, China’s wind power generators are distributed in 24 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions). The provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) whose installed capacity exceeds 1 million kwhs include Inner Mongolia, Liaoning Province, Hebei Province, and Jilin Province. In accordance with an article in the US Fortune magazine, China

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Dongfang Wind Farm, Hainan.


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has begun to take the lead in green energy and green technology becoming the largest producer of wind power generators in the world in 2009. Solar energy can be used for power generation by means of solar energy photovoltaic (PV) generation, solar thermionic power generation, solar water heaters, and solar houses. The application of PV generation started in the 1970s and developed rapidly in the 1980s. Between 1983 and 1987, China brought in seven solar battery production lines from the United States, Canada, and other countries, which increased China’s production capacity of solar power sharply from 200 kW in 1984 to 4.5 MW in 1988. In terms of scale, China’s solar energy industry ranks first in the world. China has become a major producer of PV batteries. It also possesses the integrated equipment in solar battery production, a key link of solar energy use. According to the latest statistics by China’s Solar Energy Industry Association, at the end of 2007, the production volume of China’s solar energy had reached 23 million square meters, and the total stock volume had reached 108 million square meters, which is 76% of the world’s production. China has become the largest country to produce and use solar energy water heaters with highly advanced technology and intellectual property at its disposal. Moreover, the development potential of China’s solar energy photovoltaic power generation is huge. By 2030, China’s photovoltaic installed capacity will reach 100 million kwhs, and the annual electricity generation volume will reach 130 billion kwhs, equal to the electricity volume generated by more than 30 large coal power plants. China is rich in biomass resources. The theoretical volume of biomass resources is about 5 billion tons. In accordance with the need for economic and social development and the technical level attained in using biomass for energy in China, China will emphasize the development of biomass electricity generation, biogas, biomass solid molding gas, and biological liquid fuel. In recent years, China has made substantial progress in the field of biomass energy usage, especially biogas technology whose annual production has reached 1.15 million tons of oil equivalent accounting for 0.24% of the energy consumed in rural area. The energy saved annually by the firewood saving oven kang has reached 0.525 million tons of oil equivalent. Thanks to these efforts, the country can increase its investments and subsidies. Biogas projects for households and livestock farms in rural areas have made rapid progress. Up to the end of 2008, the total number of household biogas pools in rural areas of the country was 30.50 million and the number of various livestock/farm biogas projects was about 35,000, including more than 2,000 large and medium livestock/farm biogas projects. The annual production volume of biogas in rural areas was about 12 billion cubic meters, which equaled to 18.5 million tons of standard coal and was able to bring income of RMB 15 billion to the peasant households.

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Workers maintaining the crystal silicon roof at a large solar energy photovoltaic power field in Wuhan, Hubei, January 2010.

Biogas digesters manufactured by Chinese enterprises.

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In July 2007, CLP established the first biomass energy power generation project—CLP Huanyu (Shandong) Biomass Heat and Power Company in Boxing, Binzhou, Shandong, China. The project is an environment-friendly project. Using local cotton straw as its main material, the project produces environmental-friendly power using a highly efficient clean straw combustion technology. The installed capacity of the project is 18 MW, and the annual power capacity is 120 million kwhs. If put into operation, the project can not only change waste into a valuable resource but also increase farmers’ incomes by more than RMB 60 million annually. By 2010, China’s installed capacity of biomass power generation will hit 5.5 million KW. The annual availability of biomass fuels and biogas will hit 1 million tons and 19 million cu m, respectively. The annual availability of ethanol made from non-grain material and biodiesel will hit 2 million tons and 200 thousand tons, respectively. By 2020, the said figures will reach 30 million kwhs for biomass power generation; 50 million tons for biomass fuels, 44 billion cu m for biomass gas, and 10 million tons and 2 million tons for ethanol made from non-grain material and biodiesel, respectively.

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Chapter 5

Rural and Urban Environment

China is rapidly urbanizing; however, it is still a large agrarian society with a vast rural area and populace. Both environmental protection and economic development of China cannot be achieved without the two large artificial ecological systems of the rural area and urban area. As China begins its urbanrural integration, the environmental and development problems of these two systems become increasingly interlinked.

The Farmland Ecosystem and Prevention and Treatment of Soil Pollution As an important artificial ecosystem, the farmlands (122 million hectares at present, 12.7% of the national territorial area) form the core. Chinese farmlands can be divided into two types: paddy fields and dry land. These account for 26.3% and 73.7% of the total farmland area of the country, respectively. The paddy field mainly grows rice, and the dry land mainly grows wheat, maize, soy bean, cotton, and other crops. The per capita volume of China’s farmlands is small, less than one-third of the world average level. The utilization intensity and multi-cropping index is high though. In the past 10 years, the arable land resources have been decreasing because of rapid industrialization and urbanization. The Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council have decided that the total arable land

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shall not be less than 120 million hectares and to this effect, have implemented the most rigid land management system. The Northeast Plain, the North China Plain, the Middle-Lower Yangtze River Plain, the Pearl River Delta, and Sichuan Basin have been targeted as areas of concentrated arable land. The Northeast Plain, covering more than 35 million hectares, is the largest plain in China, which with fertile black soil, abounds in wheat, corn, soybean, broomcorn, flax, and sugar beet. The North China Plain is mostly deep layered brown soil. The crops include wheat, corn, millet, and cotton. Featuring lower and even terrain and dotted with rivers and lakes, the Middle-Lower Yangtze River Plain is a key area for rice and fresh water fish and is dubbed “the land of fish and rice.” It also is rich in tea and silkworms. Crowned as the “land of abundance,’’ the Sichuan Basin, with mostly purple soil, enjoys warm and humid climate that can support all-year round crop growth. The basin abounds in rice, rapeseed, and sugarcane. The Pearl River Delta is rich in rice and can support two to three harvests a year. There are many mountains in China, which rely heavily on agriculture and support a large population. China is the first country in the world, to develop terraced farming. The terraced farmlands can be seen mainly in dry and semidry areas on the Loess Plateau in northwest China, hills in eastern China, and large areas in southwest China. Chinese terraced farming techniques are advanced. China’s terraced farms can control soil erosion, promote optimum

FYI


S URFA CE S OU RCE P O LLUT IO N

Environmental pollution is divided into point source pollution and surface source pollution. Point source pollution refers to a pollution source with a fixed emission point. Surface source pollution does not have fixed emission points, and so it is also called non-point source pollution, referring to the pollutant influx to the recipient water from non-specific places through the channels of rainfall, snow melting, and irrigation, causing organic pollution, eutrophication of water, or other forms of toxic and harmful pollution. In accordance with the characteristics of occurrence area and course, surface source pollution can be divided into urban surface source pollution and rural surface source pollution, of which the rural surface source pollution is the chief component.

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land utilization, adjust the distribution of rain water resources, relieve water crisis, and increase output. Widespread terraced plantations in China have turned lands that lost water, soil, and fertilizer into lands that preserved them, reduced flood runoff and sediments at lower reaches, brought social, economic, and ecological benefits, and have become a basic platform for agriculture and sustainable social and economic development in rural areas. Terrace cultivation is widespread in Gansu Province. By the end of 2005, the total area of terraced farms in the province was 1,864,600 hectares and an area of 77,500 sq km was saved from soil erosion. The proportion of land eroded by water is 57.35%. The slope

Terraces reclaimed by the people of the Hani Ethnic Group, Yunyang County, Yunnan Province.

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treatment project with terraced farmlands as the key has made a lot possible, building a platform for the development of the regional economy. Currently, the environmental problems in China’s rural areas are rather severe, mainly manifesting themselves in the following manner: the non-point source pollution is becoming more serious; industrial and mineral pollution is becoming quite noticeable; drinking water has hidden dangers; and pollution has transfered from urban to rural areas. Soil is an indispensable and non-renewable resource in production. Toxic and harmful chemicals in the soil can surreptitiously endanger the survival and safety of human beings and animals via transmission through the air and water bodies. China attaches much importance to the prevention and control of soil pollution and views it as critical to nation building and a crucial task in environmental protection. In 2004, Hu Jintao, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPC, clearly required “putting the prevention and treatment of soil pollution on a priority agenda” in the CPC Central Committee Conference on Population, Resources, and Environment. In 2006, Wenjiabao, Premier of the State Council, stressed “actively developing the prevention and treatment of soil pollution” in the 6th National Environmental Protection Conference. The NPC Environmental and Resources Protection Committee has listed the formulation of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution on the State agenda. The original State Environmental Protection General Bureau has developed a series of control standards and technical specifications, including the Soil Environment Quality Standards and the Soil Environment Monitoring and Measurement Technical Specifications. From 2001 onward, the original State Bureau of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of State Land and Resources organized a series of soil surveys. In August 2005, the State Bureau of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of State Land and Resources started the national soil current status survey and pollution prevention and treatment special work. In 2007, the country developed the first general survey of pollution sources, and agriculture was found to be an important source. On January 8, 2008, the original State Bureau of Environmental Protection held the first National Soil Pollution Prevention and Treatment Workshop in Beijing. On June 6, the State Bureau of Environmental Protection issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Work for Preventing and Treating Soil Pollution, clarifying the guiding thoughts, basic principles, and chief targets of soil pollution prevention and treatment. By the end of 2008, 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) of the country collected 78,940 samples of soil and agricultural products; finished 78,852 analyses and tests of samples; acquired nearly 3 million valid survey data records; and produced 8,575 maps. This promoted the environmental protection movement in the rural areas.

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A power plant in Zoucheng, Shandong Province. Because it uses the flue gas desulfurization device, the vegetable plantations around the power plant are not affected.

A New Agricultural Technique In the early 1990s, Chinese agricultural experts began to study the conservation tillage method. As compared with traditional farming, this new method requires keeping the crop roots intact. This reduces the farming workload to the extent that is required to guarantee seed germination, doing away with unnecessary crop operation procedures, carrying out reasonable shift farming, and lowering fertilizer use. This tillage method helps improve the soil structure; reduces erosion by water and wind; prevents loss of nutrients; protects the soil; reduces water evaporation and runoff; increases water accumulation in soil; preserves the water, soil, and fertilizer; and creates a favorable environment

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for crop growth. At the same time, the agricultural labor force, machinery, and energy can be reduced to promote labor productivity and realize high output, high efficiency, low energy consumption, and sustainable development. The dust emission in farmlands reduced by more than 30%; the water content in the soil increased by 10–15%; and crop output increased by 10–15%. In recent years, with continuous research and development in agricultural machinery, such as the tillage-free seeder, the mode of protective tillage has been gradually accepted by peasants and two protective tillage belts—“Beijing-Tianjin rim area” and “northwest sand wind source”—have been established. The area covered by demonstration sites will rise to 10 million hectares in 2010 and the conservation tillage method will be used on one-third of the dry land in the Three-North area. Promoting the efficiency of water use and building a water-conserving society has been accepted by the public in China. Seventeen provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities have issued water consumption plans and water-use quotas. The Third Plenary Session of the 15th CCCPC required actively developing water-saving agricultural techniques. In recent years, the farmland water saving programs across the country have achieved remarkable results. The Dry Farming

Technicians explaining conservation tillage technologies to the villagers of Boai County, Henan Province.

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Water Saving Agriculture Demonstrative Projects Construction Planning, the Construction Standard and Investment Estimation Indices of Water Saving Agriculture, and the Benefits Observation and Evaluation Methods of Farmland Water Saving Technical Modes prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture of China built a solid basis for standardizing the construction of farmland water saving facilities and conducting technical popularization. At present, the agricultural water saving irrigation area of China has increased to 320 million mu. From 2000 to 2004, the average water consumption volume of China’s farmland decreased by 29 cubic meters per mu, or by 6.1%; the water consumption for RMB 10,000 of agricultural GDP decreased by 211 cubic meters or by 34.6%. In recent years, many peasants have found that there was an increase in their vegetable sales after acquiring the green band authentication. In Wulanchabu City of Inner Mongolia, there are nearly 1 million tons of various green or pollutionfree vegetables sold to over 20 large and medium cities in China such as Beijing and Shanghai and exported to many countries/districts in the world such as South Korea and Japan. Now, green foods have become the choice of many Chinese people. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to product quality and supports safe, high-quality, highly-nutritious, and unpolluted green food. Chinese green food complies with the principle of sustainable development and is produced according to a specific production process. The green food mark is licensed by a competent authority. Since 1990, when the Green Food Project started, the Chinese green food industry has developed rapidly, and a green food management and technical supervision network has been established. In 1992, the China Green Food Development Center was established formally, marking a period of systematic orderly development of China’s green food cause. The Chinese Government has promulgated a set of quality control measures for green foods from land to table and has carried out strict checks and authentication on thousands of products that vie for the green food mark in accordance with the standards of green food. The Chinese organic food industry has just started and has great potential. China had approved 43 organic food production bases by the end of 2005, and these bases are mainly in 11 provinces, including Liaoning, Shandong and Jiangsu. Chinese eco-agriculture stresses the reasonable exploitation and protection of natural resources, while realizing high output, high profit and low pollution, comprehensive promotion of economic, ecological and social profit, and sustainable exploitation of resources. In 1994, seven ministries (bureaus) started 51 eco-agriculture pilot projects all over the country. At present, China has more than 2,000 eco-agriculture pilot sites of varying kinds, including more than 160 sites at the county level and more than 10 at the prefecture (city) level. China’s success in eco-agriculture has attracted public attention and support. International organizations have also spoken highly of it and have

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The green food and organic symbols of China.

said that China is a world leader in sustainable agriculture. The UNEP has granted seven Chinese units—including Liuminying Village, Daxing, Beijing; Shanyi Village, Xiaoshan City, Zhejiang Province; and Heheng Village, Shengao Township, Taixian County, Jiangsu Province—with World Top 500 awards.

Peasants adopt wall body cultivation technologies to plant pollution-free green vegetables in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu.

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The New Socialist Countryside Construction To promote the development of the rural economy and improve the ecological environment of rural areas, China has launched a campaign to beautify town construction since 2002. The title “National Environmental Elegant Town” has been awarded to seven batches of 629 towns (or villages) in China so far. The national environmental “elegant” town must meet six basic conditions and satisfy 26 specific indicators. The six basic conditions are as follows: deploying a specific environmental protection agency or full-time environmental protection personnel; implementing environmental protection planning for small towns and implementing them seriously; carrying out policies and laws concerning environmental protection with no reported incident of severe pollution or ecological damage in the past three years; proper rural layout, wellorganized management, tidy streets, excellent environment, harmonious rural construction and surrounding environment; clean outskirts and white pollution under control; fine rural environmental protection and highly satisfactory rural environment. The 26 specific indicators cover the growth of rural economy, social development, and environmental protection. Boxing, a beautiful town in Binzhou, Shandong, won the title of a National Environmental Elegant Town in 2007. Its fiscal revenue reached RMB 225 million, and the rural per capita net income exceeded RMB 5,000 in 2006. While developing its rural economy, it also put forth the requirements for enterprise entry into the town, paid special attention to the construction of environment protection facilities, and implemented the management mechanism of rural environmental sanitation. The said measures greatly improved the overall environmental sanitation and gave the town a brand-new look. In recent years, the town has invested more than RMB 78 million in road construction. The completion of the 106.2 km-long rural roadways was accompanied by the beautification of the whole town. The town has also built one water plant, four residential communities, and 12 schools of various levels. It has attracted more than RMB 52 million in foreign capital and was the chosen base for the Jinjie Natural Gas Project, which made the rural utilization rate of natural gas increase to more than 97% and the popularization rate of clean energy increase by 70%. This has greatly improved rural production and living conditions. The facilities in this town are complete and the environment is clean; in addition, with good planning, clean yards, and beautiful flowers and plants, the countryside overflows with vigor. In 2005, the 5th Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the CPC put forward the construction of a new socialist countryside with “enhanced productive forces, higher living standards, civilized living style, an orderly

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Old houses preserved for more than 300 years in the scenic Longxian Village in Qingtian County, Zhejiang Province. The village is a world agriculture heritage protection area.

and clean environment, and democratic administration.” All places across the country issued specific implementation schemes and put ecological construction and improvement of the rural ecological environment as being important to the socialist new countryside construction. In one word, the socialist new countryside construction promoted the improvement of rural environment quality. The construction of ecological villages is a basic project in the new countryside construction. The “new” in the construction is not only shown in rural economic development and rural management but also in preserving the beautiful mountains and rivers. Since 2000, Hainan province has conducted ecological village construction activities with the theme of “optimizing ecological environment, developing ecological economy, and nurturing ecological culture” in the process of driving the construction of an ecological province. At present, there are 5,300 ecological villages in the province. In 1997, Zhong Rongxiu from Wenyuan Village, Jiangxi, headed the construction of a 8 sq m biogas tank in the village; invested RMB 200,000 in developing the flower industry; and set up the Wenyuan Flower Plant. Meanwhile, she also expanded her pigsty, renovated the toilets, working toward ecological improvement, environmental protection, energy conservation, and high efficiency. She asked technicians for advice and suggestions and referred to

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various technical books to learn advanced technology. She made biogas with pig manure, cooked with biogas, fed pigs, and watered flowers with biogas liquid. In one year, her family income increased by RMB 4,000 from energy conservation. Zhong believes that “A single flower does not make spring.” She has encouraged and inspired other villagers to implement ecological and energyconserving farming methods. Many have started to follow her lead, building biogas tanks and renovating old orchards into osmanthus fragrant gardens. After several years of effort, the number of biogas tanks has reached 200, and 70% of the rural families have taken to ecological farming. This has enabled every family to earn RMB 1,200 more, making Wenyuan Village the first village to demonstrate ecological farming in the country.

Urban Ecological Construction China has a total of 661 municipal cities with an urban population of 358,940,000, forming three urban agglomerations and eleven regional urban centers. It advocates building ecological communities in cities. An ecological community is a living space characterized by efficient recycling of resources and energy and reduction of waste discharge by maintaining the original ecosystem with a view to achieve harmony between communities, high economic efficiency, and ecology. The construction of an ecological community has strict requirements in aspects such as energy, resources, environment, and community. Energy conservation is the top priority and efforts are made to rely on new designs and technologies and using clean energy such as solar energy, wind, biogas, and geothermal. With regard to resources, the focus is on the recycling of resources, for example, rainwater collection and processing, recycling of sewage, reclamation of solid waste and classification of domestic garbage. For the environment, specific requirements have been put down with regard to indoor and outdoor environment. For indoor environment, chemical pollution shall be prevented; for outdoor environment, the environment shall be maintained properly. For the community, residents are required to foster ecological consciousness. The Gaojiaku Community in Tiexinqiao, Yuhua District, Nanjing, is one such ecological community. Ecology has gained a central place here by optimizing tourism, the environment, and the construction of infrastructure. Greenery and lighting can be found on both sides of the road. Tiexinqiao has set up two garbage transit hubs, three garbage stations, and a sewage disposal tank with a daily capacity of 400 cubic meters. In addition, it has a recreational area for civilians, parking lots, a fitness center, and other recreational facilities. Tiexinqiao has invested in building the first village-level sewage purification station and high-quality toilets in Nanjing City. Furthermore 217 eco-friendly

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Longlian Village in Haikou City, Hainan Province: a civilized ecological village.

lavatories are being built with each community team employing one or two full-time cleaners. In recent years, China has been devoting great efforts to urban landscaping and building a national garden city with the view of improving people’s lives. By the end of 2008, the national urban afforestation coverage had reached 35.11% and the per capita public green area had risen to 8.6 square meters, which was more than double that of 2000. Since 1992, China has been regularly appraising its goal of being a garden state and 125 cities nationwide were given this title in 2008. China executed a review system for these national garden cities named once every three years. In addition, from 2001 to 2008, 252 projects have won the “China Habitat Award Example.” In order to strengthen the management and maintenance of the urban green space and guide the public to participate in environmental construction,

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Xiamen City, Fujian Province, is a national garden city and has a pleasant and beautiful urban environment.

many cities have organized activities for adopting the urban green space over recent years. Beijing started such activities in 1998 and a green space of 4.4 million square meters was adopted by individuals, institutions, and entities as of March 2007. Investment in afforestation maintenance from all walks of life reached approximately RMB 100 million, and the urban afforestation coverage rate reached 42.5%. Activities of adopting urban green space also boosted people’s ecological awareness and the spirit of public welfare. As an integral part of the construction of the urban afforestation system, the construction of country parks plays an irreplaceable role in urban climate improvement, water and soil conservation, air purification, wind and sand prevention, adjusting the material cycle in cities, and producing oxygen. Country (forest) parks in Chinese cities focus on ecological protection with the ancillary function of providing leisure facilities. The prerequisite for their development and construction is to strictly conserve biodiversity, ecological resources, and the visual value of county area. Country (forest) parks are divided into a core area, a buffer area, and a recreational area. The core area focuses on conserving the primitive natural ecological environment, where urban construction, chopping, hunting, and deforestation for land exploration, mining quarries, and destroying forestry for planting fruit trees are

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A residential community in the national forest Guiyang City, Guizhou Province.

not allowed. In the core area, the zones beneficial for the reproduction of ecologically valuable animals are defined, under mature conditions, as natural reserves for intensifying management. Urban construction, chopping, hunting, and deforestation for land exploration, quarry mining, and destroying forests for planting fruit trees are not allowed in the buffer area. The position and structure of the forests in this area can be appropriately reformed with approval from the relevant institutions and can be reserved for activities such as scientific experiments, visiting and inspecting, teaching, introducing variety, domestication, and fostering rare animals and plants under the premise of scientific activity. The recreational areas can provide residents with spaces for hiking, outings, mountaineering, and so on.

Project Construction and Ecological Rehabilitation Now, the relationship between the environment and development is the top concern of international and domestic society. In the past 30 years, there has been continuous improvement in the state’s environmental protection laws and

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regulations. Particularly after the Law on the Assessment of Environmental Effects was promulgated and implemented, China established the legal status and the policy guarantee system for the assessment of the environmental impact of construction projects, which is of great significance to China’s environmental protection. Let us consider water conservancy projects for example. Relevant laws including the Water Law, the Law on Environmental Protection, the Law on the Conservation of Water and Top Soil, the Law on the Protection of Wildlife, and the Fishery Law not only constitute the legal basis for the ecological and environmental protection of water conservancy and hydroelectric projects but also define the responsibilities and obligations of river basin development and management. In 2006, the water conservancy department prepared the Regulation for Environmental Impact Assessment of River Basin Planning, establishing the technical system and protection priorities for the river basin planning assessment. In addition, the Regulations on the preliminary estimate of Environmental Protection on Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Projects formulated by the water conservancy department standardized the expenses for environmental protection. At present, some corresponding regulations have been made for the environmental protection survey on environmental supervision and completion of construction projects. Since China implemented the Environmental Impact Assessment System, great progress has been made in the institutional improvement of legal, technical specifications, and fund guarantee norms in terms of ecological and environmental protection with regard to water conservancy and hydroelectric projects. The water conservancy project of the Xinli River in Shandong Province started in 2005. The Xinli River runs through south of the Binzhou Economic Development Zone to the north of the new area in Binzhou City, and flows northeast of Bincheng to the Chaohe River. The total length of the river is 31.2 km. The project is funded by the government of Binzhou City, Shandong Province. The Xinlihe urban area project reveals a sophisticated design and skilful construction characterized by beautiful appearance, broad water surfaces, and good hydrophilicity. The two sides are covered with a large area of green space. This project is a model for ecological projects and an ideal place for recreation, fishing, and sightseeing. Economic and social development is inseparable from the development and utilization of mineral resources and is related to the environment. However, the development of mineral resources has brought wealth to society but also considerably damaged the environment. Destruction of land and ecological imbalance is becoming increasingly conspicuous; collapses, landslides and mud-rock flows, ground subsidence, and other geological disasters are aggravated. Effectively curbing the deterioration of the environment in mines and

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An artificial lake in Binzhou City, Shandong Province.

protecting the economic and social development has become an important issues that the Chinese government at all levels and relevant departments have been taking note of. In order to improve the environment adjacent to the mines and to promote the restoration of vegetation, preventing land degradation, soil erosion, and geological disasters in the process of the development and utilization of solid mineral resources, China has promulgated several regulations. In December 2003, the State Council issued a White Paper on China’s Policies on Mineral Resources and called for “realizing the coordinative development of mineral resource exploitation and environmental protection.” In 2004, the State Environmental Protection Administration, Ministry of Land and Resources, and the State Administration of Work Safety jointly carried out special enforcement inspections of mines nationwide. In all, 52,414 mining enterprises were inspected, among which 16,413 were suspended and banned. In 2004, the State invested RMB 406 million for mine-related environmental management and restoring 27,435 hectares. In 2005, the central financial department arranged RMB 753 million for mine-related management projects,

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Subsidence area of a coal mine turned into a national mine wetland park with beautiful scenery, Huaibei City, Anhui Province.

and further carried out the construction of mine parks and the environmental protection and management planning work of provincial-level mines. At present, 28 national mine parks have been approved in China and they serve as a model for the sustainable development of mines. “Yellow clouds drift though the sky and black dust settles on the ground”—this how residents of Liuzhou City in Guangxi Province used to describe their living environment. Madam Liu who lives in the community neighborhood of the first major industrial wastewater discharge enterprise in Liuzhou City, Liuzhou Steel (Group), has vivid memories of sharp odors accompanied by dust and acid rain. There were no flowers or grass. Since 2007, Liuzhou Steel took to the recycling economy given the breakthroughs in controlling and utilizing exhaust gas, waste water, and waste residue. Liuzhou Steel introduced new technology to transform more than 7,800 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions into 14,000 tons of ammonium sulfate fertilizers annually. The waste water processing facilities made the utilization rate of the industrial water cycle reach over 96%. The millions of tons of waste residue have been transformed into cement. Liuzhou has gradually restored its original appearance of a beautiful landscape.

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Development of Eco-tourism China’s ecotourism is mainly developed by relying on nature reserves, forest parks, and scenic spots. In 1982, China’s first national forest park—Zhangjiajie National Forest Park—was established. Since then, China has established 660 national forest parks with a total area of over 11.24 million hectares to date. With 2,538 natural reserves, 208 national scenic spots, and 698 provincial-level scenic spots, China is becoming an eco-tourist hot-spot. In 1999, the Kunming World Expo and “99 ecological tourism” launched by the National Tourism Administration greatly pushed forward Chinese eco-tourism. In 2007, the China International Eco-tourism Expo further showcased the country’s abundant domestic eco-tourism resources. In 2001, the State Council issued a “Circular on Further Accelerating the Development of the Tourism Industry,” making the development of ecological tourism resources an important guiding ideology for achieving sustainable development in tourism. Relevant departments and local governments at various levels have made greater efforts to strengthen the development of tourism resources and environmental protection. In 2005, the National Tourism

Inner Mongolia Ala Shan Desert National Geological Park.

Chapter 5


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Administration, former State Environmental Protection Administration jointly issued the “Circular on Further Strengthening the Protection of the Tourist Ecological Environment.” The environmental management in tourist areas was strengthened by combining a comprehensive rectification of key river basins and areas. Environmental Impact Assessment was carried out for planning and development projects in some tourist areas, and pollution prevention work was intensified through shutting down, relocating, and regulating the number of polluting enterprises near tourist areas. At present, China’s eco-tourism is consciously following the sustainable development mode of integrating the tourism economy with environmental protection. Take Chongming Island for example. Located in the estuary of the Yangtze River, the island is the world’s largest alluvial island in an estuary and China’s third biggest island. It is also called “the portal of the Yangtze River and the Yingzhou Island of the East China Sea.” The island is surrounded by rivers on three sides, with one side opening to the sea. It covers an area of 1,267 sq km. It is flat, with fertile land, luxuriant woods, and abundant resources. Therefore, it is also called “the last ecologically pure land of Shanghai.” At

Lugu Lake located at the borderline of Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province.

120


Dongtan Wetland, Chongming Island, Shanghai.

present, Chongming Island is generally defined as an “ecological island,” forming a landscape comprising five major ecological zones—the wetlands around the estuary, areas for migratory birds, the Acipenser Sinensis protection area, the urban forest on the plains, and the river and lake water system of the alluvial island. This island conforms to ecological principles, establishing a human habitat focused on the natural island environment, where society, economy, and nature develop in a coordinated manner, where materials and energy are efficiently utilized, and the ecological cycle is sustained. Chongming Island is to be developed into a green island at the estuary of the Yangtze River.

6

Chapter 6

Moving toward a Green Economy

As a developing country, China seeks a sustainable way to coordinate issues related to its population, economy, society, environment, and resources. Protecting the environment and economic growth are usually regarded as contradictory. Which mechanism can make these two develop consistently? At present, the green economy has been put forward as a solution. This refers to a balanced economy that caters to the demands of environmental protection and human well-being and is aimed at harmonizing the co-existence of the economy and environment and rationally protecting resources and energy. In practice, China is still exploring the green economy construct. Setting up an ecological compensation mechanism, establishing and improving environmental economic policies, and developing a low carbon economy are several important aspects of the green economy.

Ecological Compensation Mechanism Ecological compensation mechanism is a public system, aimed at protecting the environment, boosting the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature, and utilizing administrative means and the markets to adjust the interests of the ecology’s stakeholders. It just implies the polluter pays principle. In 2008, the Chinese legislature revised the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, in which “ecological compensation” was first legalized in a legitimate form in Article 7, closely combining environmental protection measures with the interest guarantee mechanism. This legislation directly provided 123

124


FYI

F OR YOUR INF ORMATIO N

GREEN ECONOMY

This concept comes from the Blue Book on Green Economy published in 1989 by British economist Pierce. It refers to a novel mode of market-oriented economic development, based on a traditional industry that targets harmony between the economy and the environment. It also implies a developing need generated by the industrial economy of meeting the demands of human environment and health.

a larger development space for the ecological compensation mechanism in China. Actually, before this law was enforced, China had already begun research into and practiced ecological compensation. For instance, the ecological compensation work of forest and nature reserves had achieved prominent results. Besides the forest ecological benefit compensation system, natural forests protection, returning the farmlands to forests and other ecological projects can also be regarded as compensation to ecological system degradation caused by long-term destruction. Some of these ecological compensations have been quite successful. Returning the farmlands to forests (grasslands) is thus far the largest ecological compensation practice in China in which the State invests the most. It is the first instance of China taking compensatory measures for a large-scale ecological construction project, which plays a significant role in curbing substantial ecological destruction in vulnerable areas and protecting and restoring forests and grassland resources. The pilot project of returning farmlands to forests (grasslands) started in 1999 and was completely initiated in 2002, covering 25 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and more than 32,000,000 rural households in 2,279 counties of Xinjiang regiments, involving 124 million peasants and an investment of RMB 130 billion from the central government. The ecological benefits were huge. In addition, this project also solved the problem of poverty among peasants within the project regions and was welcomed by the masses. It was a win-win situation with regard to the ecology and the economy. Other large-scale ecological construction projects have kicked off in China since the 1980s, including the construction of protected forests, treatment of water loss, prevention of desertification, and protection of natural

Chapter 6 Moving toward a Green Economy

125

Peasants from Rongchang County, Chongqing City, receiving the compensation fund for “returning farmlands to forests,” March 2007.

forests and the Three-river Source Area. These are significant with respect to ecological compensation—compensation for the degradation of the ecological system caused by long-term destruction. The State has invested more than RMB 100 billion on these large projects. All these projects are successful practices in ecological compensation. In addition, the arable land occupancy compensation system has been carried out in China for several years. Important ecological construction projects such as natural forest protection and fiscal subsidies for construction of nature protection regions can be viewed as compensatory. In August 2007, former State Environmental Protection General Bureau issued its Opinion on Trial Implementation of Ecological Compensation, which was the first directive document issued by the Chinese government on ecological compensation. The Opinion firstly reiterated the notion that the ecological compensation system (aimed at protecting the environment and boosting harmony between humans and nature) is the environmental economic policy whereby the interests and relationships among the

126


stakeholders in ecological environment protection and construction are adjusted. This is done based on the service value of the ecological system, the costs of ecological protection and development, and by the means of comprehensive administrative methods and the market. The Opinion defined five fundamental principles for ecological compensation: the developer should protect the resources; the person who destroys the resources should restore them; the person who benefits should pay the compensation; the person who pollutes should pay for it; and the obligations, rights, and interests should be consistent. These guidelines would enhance winwin situations. The government would guide policy decisions and combine these with market control. The measures should be altered to suit local conditions, and innovations should be encouraged. In September 2007, the former State Environmental Protection General Bureau claimed to carry out the trial implementation of ecological compensation in four regions including natural reserves, important ecological function areas, mine resource development areas, and water environmental protection areas. Through trial implementation, China started to build a standardized system of ecological compensation for key areas, to explore diversified ecological compensation modes and to lay solid foundations for setting up a nationwide ecological compensation system. For ecological compensation in the river basin, local practices mainly focus on the protection of urban drinking water sources and the ecological compensation issues between upstream and downstream along medium and small water basins within administrative districts; for example, the water resource protection cooperation in the water source areas between Beijing and Hebei province, the ecological compensation of Guangdong province for the upstream Dongjiang River, and the ecological compensation of Zhejiang Province for the Xin’anjiang River in its region. Some local places also explore models like water trade, for instance. Dongyang city of Zhejiang province successfully concludes the trade for water use rights with Yiwu city, i.e., Dongyang city transfers the permanent water use rights of 50 million cubic meters in the Hengjin reservoir to Yiwu city. Through these ecological compensation practices, China has gradually enriched its ecological compensation system. However, these practices also had drawbacks because they relied on the projects, and when these projects were completed, changes occurred. This meant that ecological protection lacked continuity. Besides, it was difficult to clarify the compensation obligations in practice. Relevant authorities have to continuously explore how to adjust the mechanism of government intervention in priority areas to a mechanism whereby market measures drive and sustain change.


127

China’s first “Inter City Water Right Trade Project” was successfully launched on January 6, 2005, in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province and the city residents said goodbye to water shortage. The water coming from the Dongyang Hengjin Reservoir flows into Yiwu City Water Storage and Regulation.

Establishing and Improving Environmental/ Economic Policies As compared with the local governments and economic authorities, China’s current environmental protection authorities lack strong deterrents. In recent years, China’s environmental protection authorities have cooperated with

128


many economic authorities, jointly establishing and putting forward many environmental/economic policies, and have made environment protection permeate every aspect of economic policy-making, i.e., from production to the fields of logistics, distribution, consumption, and foreign trade. Establishing and improving a set of effective environmental/economic policies is a good guarantee for the holistic development of the environment, economy, and society. Since the second half of 2007, China successively came up with several policy approaches such as green credit, environmental pollution liability insurance, green trade, and green security. Environmental/economic policy attained a new stage of practice. Green credit is an effective approach to curbing industrial pollution leading to a green economy. It aims at cutting off credit to enterprises that flout environmental laws and ensuring that banks perform their environmental obligations. This is the first environmental/economic policy carried out in China. In July 2007, the former State Environmental Protection General Bureau, the Bank of China, and China Banking Regulatory Commission Co-operation entered the information of 1.8 enterprises that violated environmental laws

In August 2008, the working staff of the China Industrial Bank provided credit service consultation to clients. This bank put forward the slogan “Energy-saving and Emissionreducing Green Credit.”


129

into the bank credit rating system. The China Banking Regulatory Commission released documents requesting the bank to suspend offering loans to enterprises that violated environmental laws. According to the incomplete statistics, after this policy was implemented, five large banks in China totally pushed back loans worth RMB 3,934 million from enterprises not conforming to the State’s energy saving and emission reduction policy. In 2008, the Ministry of Environmental Protection provided the Credit Collection System of the People’s Bank of China with substantial information on enterprises that violated environmental laws and offered an inquiry service to financial institutions such as commercial banks. These commercial banks used part of the information to suspend or limit the loans to enterprises that violated environmental laws and these enterprises had to take active measures to deal with pollution in order to regain their loan access. The Ministry of Environmental Protection will further intensify the information exchange mechanism with financial departments to jointly formulate the “management regulations of reporting and exchanging of green credit information,” further standardizing information reporting and exchange. Environmental pollution liability insurance is an effective measure to prevent and control environmental risk. At the beginning of 2008, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly released Opinions on Carrying out Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance, selecting high-risk industries to develop products for environmental pollution liability insurance. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and China Insurance Regulatory Commission organized local environmental protection authorities and insurance companies in Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, and Shanghai to conduct some trial implementations. Soon after this policy was carried out, China’s first environmental pollution liability insurance compensation case transpired. A manufacturer of pesticides purchased compensation insurance from Ping An Insurance Company for leakage of hydrochloric gas on September 28. An incident occurred and the neighboring vegetable fields were polluted. After the event, Ping An Insurance Company carried out its investigations and paid out the compensation. With the support of several economic authorities, the Ministry of Environmental Protection created a new double-high directory (i.e., the directory of products with high pollution and high environmental risk) and proposed the cancellation of export rebates and processing trade for these products and took constraining measures. In June 2007, the former State Environmental Protection General Bureau came up with over 50 kinds of double high products and proposed the cancellation of their export rebates. This proposal was accepted by the Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Taxation, resulting in a 40% drop in the export of those products.

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At the beginning of 2008, the Ministry of Environmental Protection again released the 140 types of double high products directory, covering six industries such as pesticides, inorganic salts, batteries, and paints and dyes that involved the export of more than 2 billion dollars, a value accepted by all economic authorities. In April 2008, the Ministry of Commerce released the directory of forbidden processing trade and adopted the directory of all products submitted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, clarifying the stance of curbing the exports of double-high products. The Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Taxation released the list of goods whose export rebates were cancelled at end of July 2008, among which 26 goods were double high products. In 2007, the environment a l prote c t ion authorit ies held back 10 enterprises with environmental problems; these enterprises were to be listed on the securities markets. In June 2008, the Ministry of Environmental Protection released a Directory of Classification Management of Environmental Examination of Listed Companies, listing 14 seriously polluted industries, including thermal power, steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum, coal, metallurgy, construction material, mining, chemical industry, petrifaction, pharmacy, paper making, textile, and leather industry. It covered hundreds of enterprise types. This measure had a positive effect on restraining the listing of polluting industries on the securities market and coerced enterprises into performing their social obligations. The environmental exposure system of the listed companies was greatly supported by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Shanghai Stock Exchange that released a Guide of Environmental Information Exposure of Listed Companies in May 2008. China’s environmental authorities and the Ministry of Finance released a series of documents where electricity price increases (due to the use of desulfurization technology that boosted energy-saving environmental protection) as well as the establishment of a downtown waste water collection network were announced. Besides, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and several other authorities set up the environmental tax cooperative team, which would continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities to formulate the environmental tax implementation plan and carry out environmental tax collection. China’s environmental/economic policy is still in the nascent stage and requires further work to attain an optimum. Several technological difficulties will appear in the implementation process. For example, the information sharing system has not been established and a matching directory and relevant standards for policy implementation are lacking. All these need to be developed and improved upon by the relevant authorities in China.


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On February 18, 2008, the original State Environmental Protection General Bureau and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued a document, formally determining the roadmap of establishing a liability insurance system for environmental pollution.

Development of a Low-Carbon Economy As early as in 1999, the concept of a low-carbon economy was brought into China; however, it did not become popular until recently. Nowadays, as climate change has become an issue of concern, the notion of a low-carbon economy is more conspicuous. China as well as other countries have begun to realize that it is the new trend of economic development in the future. In February 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair released a white book concerning British energy titled Our Future Energy—Creating a Low Caron

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The “Media High Level Forum of Climate Change and Low Carbon Economic Development” held in Beijing in July 2009.

Economy. It emphasized that the development of a low carbon economy was not only technologically feasible but also reasonable, and would make economic development more secure and stable. The United Nations Environment Program named the World Environmental Day in 2008 as “kicking the habit and facing a low-carbon economy day,” which strengthened this concept. In addition to Britain, Japan, and the United States, other developed countries also put forward the idea of establishing a low carbon economy and society. A low-carbon economy is based on low energy consumption, low emissions, and low pollution. It targets growth with low carbon emissions. Its development will be achieved through the development of system control, and will be reflected as enhancement of energy efficiency, optimization of energy use, and rational consumption behavior. This mode undoubtedly provides a new way of sustainable development for many countries including China. In December 2006, the Chinese government released a National Assessment Report of Climate Change, putting forward the adoption of a low carbon economy for the first time. In June 2007, the Ministry of Science and Technology released the “Special Activities Undertaken by China to Respond to Climate Change,” reiterating the adoption of a low-carbon economy. Ministers from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Environmental Protection proposed that China should expedite establishing a national low-carbon economy development strategy.


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In September 2007, China’s President Hu Jingtao addressed the 15th Informal Leadership Meeting of APEC where he stated that, “Climate change is actually the problem related to development, and it can be appropriately solved only under sustainable development. We should set up the production mode and consumption pattern in conformity with the requirement of sustainable development, optimize energy structure, boost industry upgrading, develop a low-carbon economy, strive to set up resource saving and a friendly environment society, and fundamentally respond to the challenges of climate change.” In 2008, financial crisis swept across the globe and had an impact on people’s exploration of the low-carbon economy to a certain extent. Some people were worried about the development of a low-carbon economy, but others thought that the financial crisis would on the contrary promote it. China did not change its stance on account of the financial crisis and a series of measures indicated that it was still on the way to developing a low-carbon economy. In response to the financial crisis, the Chinese government introduced an RMB 4 trillion rescue package, a substantial part of which was used on the environment and creating a green economy. In June 2008, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) jointly released the Report on China’s Ecological Track Record. It indicated that China consumed 15% of the world’s biological capacity and the resources China consumed were more than twice the resources provided by its own

In January 2008, the China low-carbon city development project was launched in Beijing. Shanghai and Baoding were the trial point cities.

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ecosystem. This implied that China needed to promote a low-carbon economy as soon as possible. Three months later, the Low-Carbon Economy Institute of Tsinghua University was established, which was dedicated to research on a lowcarbon economic policy and strategy development system, to make proposals for the sustainable development of China, the global economy, and the society. Emissions trading, that is, market compensation trading with a limited emission quota of pollutants emission, is an effective way of controlling the total amount of pollutants. At present, some developed countries and international organizations are fervent in their belief that the markets will get developing countries onto the low-carbon economic trajectory. Some local governments in China are passionate about this and Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin have set up three Environment and Climate Exchanges to carry on public trading for environmental rights. In November 2008, at the Emission Rights Trading International Seminar sponsored by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, some people proposed that China should carry out emission trading for sulfur dioxide in the electricity industry and incorporate it into the “12th Five Year Plan.”

The office of the folk environmental protection organization “Earth Village,” established in Daping Village in August 2009. The first low-carbon ecological village of China was established preliminarily in Daping Village, Pengzhou—a heavy-disaster area during the Wenchuan Earthquake.


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At the beginning of 2008, the WWF selected Shanghai and Baoding as the pilot areas to carry out the low-carbon city development demonstrative projects. In the process of developing a low-carbon city, Shanghai was dedicated to conducting survey and statistics on the energy consumption of buildings, publishing the energy consumption conditions, and conducting energy audits, in order to enhance the energy efficiency of large-scale buildings. Baoding put forward the concept of building “China’s Electricity Valley,” constructing “Green Baoding and Low Carbon City,” and developing seven large industrial parks of photovoltaic, wind power, electric transmission and transformation equipment, new energy storage, energy efficiency and saving, power electronics components, power automation, and power software on the basis of the new energy technology and energy equipment industries in the National High-tech Area of Baoding. The low carbon projects carried out by the above-mentioned two pilot cities generated good social benefits. At present, besides Beijing, Shanghai, and Baoding, many other cities such as Zhuhai, Hangzhou, Tangshan, and Jilin also show great interest in establishing a low-carbon economic zone. The transition to a low carbon economy is a comprehensive move, away from the current industrial and energy structure, and a complete reform of the current production processes. China’s attempts with respect to development within the framework of a low-carbon economy, if successful, will provide substantial benefits to the society as a whole.

INDEX A

Afforestation, 11, 39, 41, 87, 112, 113 Artificial oases, 50

B

Biological diversity, 18, 22, 51, 61–79 Biological invasion, 75 Biomass, 94, 96, 98 Biosafety, 22, 75 Botanical gardens, 64–68

C

Chemical oxygen demand, 81, 89 China Green Food Development Center, 107 Chongming Island, 53, 119–120 Climate change, 20–21, 81, 86, 131–133

D

Desertification, 41, 45, 48–49, 55, 124 Deterioration, 3, 5, 7, 115

E

Ecological compensation, 18, 123–127 Ecological construction, 9, 110–114, 124–125 Ecological damage, 6, 12, 109 Emissions per capita, 86 Endangered species, 35, 64, 68–75 Endemicity, 63 Environmental carrying capacity, 41–42 Environmental degradation, 116, 124–125 Environmental Impact Assessment System, 7, 115 Environmental sustainability, 81 Eutrophication, 31–35, 102

F

Freshwater ecosystem, 25, 28

G

Genetic preservation centers, 67 Glaciers, 26, 31 Green band authentication, 107 Green Economy, 123–135 Green Great Wall, 11, 38 Greenhouse gas emission, 20, 85–86

I

Industrialization, 12, 101 Inexhaustible natural resource, 28 Informatization, 12 Invasive Biology Control, 75–76

K

Kyoto Protocol, 18

L

Low-carbon economy, 131–135

M

Mangroves, 35, 77 Minamata disease, 3–4

N

Natural reserves, 52, 64–65, 68, 70, 114, 118, 126

O

On-the-spot protection, 65, 73 Out-of-spot protection, 65 137

138

INDEX

P

Panda, 63, 68–69 Point source pollution, 102, 104 Polluter pays, 123

Q

Qinghai-Tibet Railway, 57–58

R

Red tide, 33–35 Reform and opening up, 6, 9, 16 Returning farmlands to forests, 10, 39–40, 64, 124–125 Returning grazing lands to grasslands, 64

S

Surface source pollution, 102

T

Terraced farmlands, 102, 104

U

Urbanization, 56, 101

W

Water resources, 28, 57, 87, 103 Wetlands, 51–56, 62, 64, 120

Z

Zones, 25, 29, 71, 114, 120

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