Program of Action for Sustainable Development in China in the Early 21st Century (Part III-2)

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, July 26, 2003

Program of Action for Sustainable Development in China in the Early 21st Century (Part III-2)

In the wake of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, the Chinese government published China's Agenda 21 - White Paper on China's Population, Environment and Development in the 21st Century as a platform document for guidingthe country's social and economic development. That document marked the beginning of the sustainable development process in China. To help implement the sustainable development strategy, this Program of Action for Sustainable Development in China in the Early 21st Century (hereinafter referred to as the "Program") is hereby promulgated.

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4. Ecological Conservation and Development

Build a scientific and sound system for ecological monitoring and management and establish nature reserves of all types with rational distribution and appropriate sizes. Build an anti-desertification system and reinforce efforts to combat soil erosion. Improve the ecological environment for farming; improve afforestation in urban areas, thereby ameliorating the quality of the ecological environment.

Ecological monitoring and security evaluation. Build a sound technical and standard system for ecological monitoring and security evaluation at different levels: national, regional and protection zone. Adopt remote-sensing and terrestrial monitoring technology to monitor and manage the following: forests, grasslands, wetlands, farmlands, nature reserves, deserts, soil conservation, agricultural ecology, biodiversity, large ecologicalprojects, major resources development areas, and changes in land use. Introduce emergency monitoring for disasters such as serious pollution accidents, red tides, oil spills and sandstorms. Build an ecological security evaluation and early-warning system.

Key ecological projects. Focus on the protection of natural forests in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, and the natural forests in northeast China. Curb soil erosion, alleviate damages done by sandstorm, strengthen protection of biodiversity, build fast-growing and high-yield timber production bases, and gradually meetdemands for ecological soundness and forest products. Step up implementation of six key projects: protection of natural forests and return unfit cultivated farmland to forest; remove sandstorm sources around Beijing and Tianjin; build shelter belts in north China, northeast China and northwest China and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River; construction of wild animal and plant protection parks and nature reserves; and the construction of fast-growing, high-yield timber production bases in targeted regions.

Nature reserves. Build up existing nature reserves - including those of forest ecosystems, rare wild animal protection zones, desert ecosystems, inland wetland and water ecosystems, grassland and meadow ecosystems, marine and coastline ecosystems, wild plants, geological sites, and paleontologic sites. Build a number of high-quality and highly-effective nature reserves in source regions for major rivers such as the Yangtze and Yellow rivers andmajor natural wetlands in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, and in ecologically volatile regions such as southeast, northeast and northwest China and habitats for rare and near-extinct species. Rationalize the distribution of nature reserves and step up construction of biological corridors.

Ecological conservation zones. Strengthen construction and management of existing ecological conservation zones. Build new conservation zones in source areas for rivers; important wetlands (lakes) in the valleys of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Songhuajiang River and inland river systems such as the Tarim River and the Heihe River; hilly red-earth regions in the south, the Loess Plateau, and earth-rock mountainous areas in the north; areas where farming and animal husbandry are intermingled; drought-hit grassland areas; and coastal water fishing zones. Adjust the industrial structure in those conservation zones by developing environmentally-friendly industries and minimizing the impact of human activities on the ecosystem. Adhere to the principles of "conservation through moratorium on productive activities" and restore and rebuild the ecosystem.

Anti-desertification. Develop operational mechanisms and policies favorable to economic development in desertified regions;study and apply appropriate farming techniques that can prevent orcurb land desertification. Build an anti-desertification system that combines prevention with control and utilization. Focus on conservation of existing vegetation in desert-bordering and oasis areas and build shelter belts in peripheral areas around oases; conserve and restore vegetation in semi-desertified areas; for high-altitude desertified areas, improve desertified land in areaswhere there is a heavy concentration of human activities while ensuring conservation of existing vegetation. Fully improve and develop wherever possible desertified land in the semi-wet or wet parts of the Yellow-Huaihe-Haihe Plain; comprehensively improve and develop desertified land in the south. Take measures to prohibit development of whole tracts of desertified land not appropriate for control or development.

Soil conservation. Improve the soil conservation policy; implement state policies that encourage retirement of unfit farmlands and switching them to planting trees and grass; improve water conservation for basic farmlands and grasslands. Integrate water conservation with development, anti-soil erosion efforts with efforts to fight poverty and develop the local economies; introduce an integrated approach to fight soil erosion by treatinglarge river systems as backbone and small river valleys as components, so as to prevent man-made soil erosion in the course of massive development and construction. Build a comprehensive anti-soil erosion mechanism that combines engineering measures with biological and farming measures. Study, develop and apply appropriate techniques for soil preservation. Step up international cooperation and exchanges and introduce advanced technologies, superior varieties, management methods and means.

"Green" agriculture. Step up enforcement of legislation on protection of wild agricultural biological resources; collect specimens from key areas and build pilot conservation areas or sites. Introduce protective farming techniques and continue to implement dry farming pilot projects in drought-hit counties. Develop effective policies and management mechanisms; develop and apply key technologies and models for "green" agriculture; encouraging farmers to adopt clean-production technologies and use less chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Recycle agriculturalwastes and build a sustainable ecosystem for agricultural development. Improve legislation, standards and testing proceduresfor organic or pollution-free farm products; better the testing, evaluating and pre-warning systems for the agricultural ecosystem;build up agricultural production bases and improve product safety management; create demonstration bases and brands for organic or environment-friendly agricultural production.

Scenic spots protection. Develop and implement plans for scenicspots in accordance with the principle of "strict protection, uniform management, rational development and sustainable utilization". Specify the scope of protection for the core part ofa scenic spot (which includes ecological, natural or historic sites) when making plans for overall protection. Make special plans, identify key areas and take special measures to protect those key areas. Prevent any construction project unrelated to resources conservation from taking place within the core areas of scenic spots. Align the planning of scenic spots to local land useplanning.

Urban environment. Rationally plan land use for urban construction; establish and strictly implement a "green line" rulefor urban management. Ensure a certain portion of public green in urban planning and a sizable area of a shelter belt around large cities as befitting modern cities. Step up urban landscaping and improve the air quality in urban areas. Promote Garden Cities and alleviate the "urban thermal-island effect". Improve management ofconstruction sites and streets and reduce dust and noise.

5. Environmental Protection and Pollution Control

Control the aggregate discharge of pollutants and curb water pollution in river systems. Reinforce air pollution control in keycities and water cleanup efforts in key sea areas. Improve legislation and law enforcement on environmental protection and revise technical standards for environmental protection. Aggressively apply clean production and environmental-protection industries and actively participate in regional and global environmental initiatives, contributing to global environmental conservation while improving the quality of China's environment.

Water pollution control. Step up water pollution control along major rivers and lakes and tighten protection of drinking water sources; clean up lakes and reinforce pollution control at water sources. Promote clean production and further reduce discharge of pollutants. Control the total discharge of pollutantsand increase wastewater treatment. Introduce zero discharge of wastewater in selected industries. Continue to build up infrastructure for urban sewage and garbage disposal. Rationalize the industrial and product mix; develop and apply high technology and processes for curbing heavy pollution in line with China's national conditions; raise the overall level of industrial development and water pollution control.

Marine pollution control. Improve the national marine monitoring network to boost monitoring of marine pollution and theecological environment. Reduce discharge of land-based pollutants into the sea and sea pollution caused by marine production and development activities. Control the total discharge of pollutants into the sea. Clean up the environment in key sea areas and step up protection and construction of the ecological environment alongthe coast.

Air pollution control. Control the emission of acid rain-causing substances, hazardous and harmful industrial gases; control acid rain, particulate substances, optical chemical smog and indoor air pollution.

Urban traffic management. Improve urban traffic structures by giving priority to public transit. Develop rail transportation in mega-cities and build a road system that favors public transit. Control automobile exhaust emission and noise pollution in cities.

Solid waste control. Gradually introduce garbage sorting, collection and recycling and increase environment-friendly garbagedisposal rate and recycling rate. Further raise the recycling ratefor solid wastes and step up ecological conservation and restoration efforts at mines. Improve the safe disposal of hazardous wastes.

The environmental protection industry. Regulate the environmental protection industry and market; rationalize the industrial structure by building a market-oriented technical service system and a sound market mechanism through commercializing pollution control. Develop policies to support thedevelopment of the environmental protection industry and intensifyR&D of key technologies and processes for environmental protection;boost the production capacity for high-efficiency and practical environmental protection equipment and promote the serialization and standardization of key equipment. Guide the development of theenvironmental protection industry through standards, technical policies, demonstration projects and key practical technologies. Introduce the ISO14000 environmental management system and "environment-friendly" labeling and certification practices. Improve intermediary services, technical and engineering services to facilitate environmental protection.

6. Capacity Building

Build a legal framework for population, resources and environmental management and improve law enforcement. Make full use of the mass media to enhance public awareness of sustainable development. Build a set of indicators and monitoring system for sustainable development and establish an information-sharing system for government offices, the general public and the researchcommunity.

Legislation and enforcement. Strengthen legislation on sustainable development and improve the legal system. Draft and improve laws and regulations on population, resources, the ecological environment, prevention and alleviation of natural disasters, and information sharing and utilization, based on the principle of sustainable development. Revise relevant laws and regulations in line with market rules and the WTO rules. Establishand improve a law enforcement mechanism to ensure that laws are enforced.

Indicator system, monitoring and evaluation. Build an indicatorsystem and monitoring/evaluation system in line with China's conditions to measure sustainable development. Monitor and evaluate sustainable development at both national and regional levels and regularly publish relevant reports.

Information sharing. Build databases on basic public data, population, socioeconomics, resources, ecology, the environment and disasters to allow information sharing based on high-speed networking; make information publicly available and enable the databases to process and analyze data. Build an information-sharing network that meets the government's needs for decision-making.

Part I Part II Part III-1 Part III-2 Part IV

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