Several Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Natural Resources, have jointly released the "15th Five-Year Plan for Ecological Protection." This plan promotes the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands, deserts, and the marine environment, aiming to create a comprehensive protection and restoration framework spanning from mountain peaks to the sea.
The plan establishes specific targets for 2030, including the continuous optimization of the ecological spatial layout, steady improvement in ecological quality, a significant slowing of biodiversity loss trends, and an increased supply of high-quality ecological products. It also aims to enhance the diversity, stability, and sustainability of ecosystems, improve the regulatory system for ecological protection and restoration, and effectively safeguard national ecological security.
The plan outlines several concrete goals for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. These include ensuring that the land area of nature reserves accounts for no less than 18% of the national land area, raising the Ecological Quality Index (EQI) to 86.5, achieving a soil and water conservation rate of over 74%, and reaching a forest coverage rate of 25.8%.
The plan calls for the continued optimization of the ecological spatial pattern. It aims to solidify the national ecological security barrier system, anchored by the "three zones and four belts" framework, and construct a green barrier in the "Three-North" Shelterbelt Forest Program region. A dynamic maintenance mechanism for the territorial space planning system will be established to optimize the scope of ecological protection red lines. The plan also promotes the development of a nature reserve system centered on national parks, supported by nature reserves and supplemented by various natural parks. It will consider the integrity of regional ecological structures and the importance of ecological functions to optimize key areas for ecological protection and restoration supervision, dynamically adjusting these areas based on ecological status assessments and the impact of human activities.
In the area of coordinated ecosystem protection and restoration, the plan outlines three key tasks: promoting the natural recovery of ecosystems, advancing ecosystem restoration, and improving the ecological livability of urban and rural areas. The plan includes provisions for the protection of grasslands, forests, rivers, lakes, and wetlands. It also calls for strengthening the protection of primary deserts, advancing the protection of glacial, snow-capped, and permafrost systems, and enhancing the protection of typical marine ecosystems with strict controls on land reclamation from the sea.
Furthermore, the plan requires improvements to urban green space systems, encouraging the open sharing of parks and green spaces. It also emphasizes the restoration of urban wetlands and water environments, the remediation of small-scale rural water bodies, and the protection of the original landscapes of rural hills, farmlands, rivers, lakes, and wetlands. The plan promotes the in-depth greening and beautification of rural areas, prioritizing the use of native tree species.
The plan clearly outlines the comprehensive enhancement of biodiversity protection, including the protection and sustainable use of wild species and genetic resources. It also calls for the integration of biodiversity protection into urban laws, regulations, plans, and policy systems. The plan aims to strengthen biosecurity risk monitoring and early warning, continuously advancing risk identification, assessment, and emergency response in areas such as invasive alien species, the application of biotechnology, and epidemic diseases. It also emphasizes stricter monitoring and control of invasive alien species, as well as rigorous approval processes for the introduction of alien species and the environmental release of biotechnology products.
Additional tasks outlined in the plan include strengthening the monitoring and assessment of ecological quality, enforcing stricter supervision and law enforcement for ecological protection, improving the ecological protection guarantee system, and deepening the demonstration of ecological civilization construction.
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