The National Development and Reform Commission recently issued the Implementation Measures for the Preparation of Negative List of Industrial Access in Key Ecological Function Zones. This means that China will start to implement the negative list of industrial access in key ecological function areas.
What is the significance of the negative list of industrial access to guide and restrict industrial development, reduce interference in natural ecosystems, and ensure national ecological security? How should all localities make a negative list of local industrial access? The reporter interviewed Li Tianwei, chief engineer of the Environmental Engineering Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Reporter: What is the significance of implementing the negative list of industrial access in key ecological function areas?
Li Tianwei:Implementing the negative list system of industrial access in key ecological functional zones is a major task determined by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, a basic and leading top-level system for implementing the strategy of national main functional zones, a major institutional innovation for accurately managing and developing land space, and of great significance for coordinating the ecological environmental protection and economic and social development of key ecological functional zones and building a national ecological security strategic pattern.
Implementing the negative list of industrial access in key ecological functional zones is a key measure to improve the ability of spatial governance and safeguard the national spatial security, and an important guarantee to coordinate economic development and environmental protection and improve the productivity of key ecological functional zones. At the same time, it is also a powerful starting point to improve the supply capacity of regional ecological products and continuously meet the people’s growing demand for ecological products.
Reporter: How big is the scope of national key ecological function area?
Li Tianwei:According to the National Major Functional Area Planning, the national key ecological functions are divided into four types: water conservation type, soil and water conservation type, windbreak and sand fixation type and biodiversity conservation type, including 25 areas including forest ecological functional areas in Daxing ‘anling, involving 436 county-level administrative regions, with a total area of about 3.86 million square kilometers, accounting for 41% of the national land area; At the end of 2008, the total population was about 110 million, accounting for 8.5% of the total population in China.
In 2016, the State Council issued the Reply on Agreeing to Add Some Counties (Cities, Districts and Banners) to national key ecological function area again, and agreed in principle to add 240 counties (cities, districts and banners) and 87 forestry bureaus in the state-owned forest areas in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia to national key ecological function area. After the adjustment of the scope, the number of county-level administrative districts in national key ecological function area increased from 436 to 676, and the proportion of county-level administrative districts in the national territory increased from 41% to 53%.
Reporter: What is the significance of designating key ecological function areas as restricted development areas to ensure the ecological security of a large area of the country?
Li Tianwei:The key ecological function areas bear the leading ecological functions such as water conservation, soil and water conservation, wind and sand fixation and biodiversity conservation, and shoulder the primary task of protecting and improving the supply capacity of ecological products.
According to the comprehensive evaluation of the National Plan for Major Functional Zones, the leading functions of various ecological functional zones have been damaged to varying degrees. Only by designating these areas as restricted development areas, restricting large-scale and high-intensity industrialization and urbanization development, developing suitable industries that do not affect the orientation of main functions according to local conditions, guiding the orderly development of natural resources and rational distribution of industries in China, guiding the gradual and orderly transfer of overloaded population, and speeding up the restoration and protection of damaged ecological functions can the supply capacity of ecological products be gradually improved in key ecological function areas.
Reporter: How should we screen industries that are included in the negative list of industrial access in key ecological functional zones? How to divide restricted and prohibited industries?
Li Tianwei:At present, the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" for national economic and social development and industrial development has been basically completed in all regions of the country, and the industrial parks in counties and cities also have clear planning scope and planned industrial types. Therefore, all provinces, counties (cities, districts and banners) should focus on sorting out and counting the types, quantities and scales of the existing leading industries, existing general industries, planned development industries with resource endowments and planned development industries without resource endowments, and put the industries that will have an impact on the ecological environment in the construction and production process into the negative list according to the development direction and development control principles of their respective key ecological functional areas. Focus on the primary industry of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, the secondary industry of mining, manufacturing, construction and electricity, heat, gas, water production and supply industries, and the tertiary industry of transportation, warehousing, real estate and water conservancy management industries into the negative list.
The negative list of industrial access in key ecological function zones includes two categories of industries, namely, prohibited industries and restricted industries, which should be determined based on the existing national Guidance Catalogue and Draft List, local relevant industrial policies and environmental policies, and the regional resource endowment and current ecological environment. Among them, the types of restricted industries should include those in the Guidance Catalogue, the Draft List and the Industry Guidance Catalogue of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), as well as encouraged and permitted industries that are inconsistent with the development direction and development control principles of the key ecological function areas; The types of prohibited industries should include the eliminated and prohibited industries in the Guidance Catalogue and the Industrial Guidance Catalogue of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), as well as the encouraged, permitted and restricted industries that do not have the conditions of regional resource endowment and are inconsistent with the development direction and development control principles of key ecological functional areas.
Reporter: How should the local authorities scientifically formulate a negative list of industrial access in key ecological functional zones in combination with regional resource endowment conditions, main function orientation and industrial comparative advantages?
Li Tianwei:According to the National Plan for Major Functional Zones, four major ecological functional zones, namely, water conservation, soil and water conservation, windbreak and sand fixation, and biodiversity conservation, are distributed in 25 regions. The development direction of the same type of functional zones in different regions is different, and there are also some differences in the ecological environment, resource endowment conditions, industrial development status and population size distribution among different counties (cities, districts and banners) located in the same functional zone. Therefore, all counties (cities, districts and banners) should focus on sorting out the current situation of regional ecological environment, mineral and cultural tourism resources, industrial development and planning, and the planning and construction of industrial parks, and study the development trend of their own traditional industries and advantageous industries, with the primary task of protecting and repairing the ecological environment and providing ecological products, develop eco-industry, eco-agriculture and eco-tourism according to local conditions, and guide the overloaded population to gradually and orderly transfer to urbanization areas to form point-like development and development.
The negative list is mainly based on the National Guidance Catalogue and Draft List, the Industrial Guidance Catalogue of provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) and the environmental protection requirements of various industries, and strictly puts forward quantifiable and operable control requirements. Strictly control all kinds of development activities; The exploitation of mineral resources, the development of suitable industries and the construction of infrastructure should be controlled within the smallest possible space. Strictly control the intensity of development, new industrial projects should be laid out in existing compliant eco-industrial zones, and stricter environmental standards for industrial access should be implemented. On the basis of the existing urban layout, further intensive development and centralized construction will be carried out, the public service system will be improved, and the supply capacity and level of public services will be improved.
(Reporter Villi Feng Lei)