"The intertidal natural wetland in Shenzhen,
Over the past few decades, Shenzhen has made a lot of concessions for its economic development.
Do we really need to fish out? "
New Shenzhen Bay Waterway caught in the quagmire of environmental impact assessment
"China News Weekly" reporter / Yang Zhijie
Issued in the 943th issue of China News Weekly, 2020.4.13
Recently, an environmental assessment report of "copying operations" pushed the Shenzhen Bay waterway dredging project to the cusp.
On March 19, the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau announced the "Exploration of the Environmental Impact Report of the Shenzhen Bay Channel Dredging Project (Phase I)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), and plans to open a 17-kilometre long and 120-meter wide bay in Shenzhen Bay 1. For the channel with a base elevation of -3.1 meters, the first phase of the project will be dredged to Shenzhen Talent Park, and the second phase will extend the route to Futian Mangrove Ecological Park.
This channel dredging project is the preparatory preparation for the expansion project of "seeing Shenzhen at sea". The attentive public soon discovered that there were a lot of plagiarism in this EIA report: there were many descriptions of "Zhanjiang" in the report, which put the situation of Zhanjiang on the head of Shenzhen Bay, and even forgot the word "Zhanjiang" replace.
The chaos in the EIA is only the tip of the iceberg. Locally in Shenzhen, the Shenzhen Bay Waterway Dredging Project itself has caused many citizens, environmental organizations and experts to face one-sided objections and doubts.
Shenzhen Bay is the city's ecological business card in Shenzhen. As a semi-closed tidal bay, it has a complete mangrove wetland ecosystem. Among them, Futian Mangrove Nature Reserve is the only national nature reserve in the hinterland of the city with the smallest area of national forests and wild animals. Hong Kong ’s Mai Po-Deep Bay Wetland across the sea is an important international wetland. Welcome nearly 100,000 migratory birds.
Many environmental protection organization leaders worry that the dredged waterway is less than 200 meters away from the wetlands along the coast. The habitat of mangroves, the habitat of migratory birds, and the survival of benthic animals will be affected. According to a poll conducted by Southern Metropolis Daily, 79% of the respondents opposed the implementation of the Shenzhen Bay Waterway Dredging Project and were concerned about the destruction of the ecological environment. Local media Nanfang + initiated a survey, with 96,633 people participating in the vote, and 90% of the respondents disagreed with the project.
The new route of "Watching Shenzhen at Sea" is sinking into a quagmire and facing stranding.
"Knife" in Shenzhen Bay
Ma Haipeng is the executive secretary general of Shenzhen Blue Marine Environmental Protection Association (hereinafter referred to as the Blue Association). On March 25, a volunteer from the Blue Association sent this announcement to the Ma Haipeng team, and he learned of the news. In many cases, such announcements hang on the government website inconspicuously, and it is difficult to attract public attention.
As the head of a local public welfare organization concerned about marine environmental protection, Ma Haipeng believes that it is necessary for the Blue Association to write an article on popular science to the public to let more people know about the project. However, he did not expect that as the relevant analysis articles and reports increased, this announcement soon triggered a series of storms.
The team of Ma Haipeng studied the report of nearly 200,000 words, and quickly found a fatal loophole: the project site is located in the most important bird protection area, but the environmental impact assessment report completely ignored and did not evaluate it, and also completely ignored the dredging project and future operations. The impact on migratory waterbirds during the period.
There are four bays around Shenzhen, Daya Bay, Dapeng Bay, Dachan Bay and Shenzhen Bay. Among them, only Shenzhen Bay is located in the core area of the urban area, sandwiched between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, directly connected to Lingding Ocean, and belongs to the typical bay wetland ecosystem. When the tide rises into the sea and the tide recedes into the land, this wetland can regulate the climate, purify the water quality, resist typhoons and other natural disasters, and at the same time nurture abundant fish and benthic animals.
This makes Shenzhen Bay a refuge for some rare waterbirds. There are about 200 species of birds in the Futian Mangrove Forest Reserve in Shenzhen Bay, 23 of which are national key protected birds, such as curled pelicans, sea cormorants, spoonbills, black-faced spoonbills, yellow-billed egrets, and hawk , Black-billed gull, brown-winged cuckoo, etc. In addition, there are 8 migratory bird migration routes around the world. In the route from Siberia to Australia, Shenzhen Bay is an important "gas station" for migratory birds.
Winter bird watching in Shenzhen Bay has become a popular activity in recent years. From November to the end of March every year, it is the golden bird watching period. In the "Migratory Bird Paradise" Shenzhen Bay Park, the usually quiet water surface gradually became lively. Tens of thousands of birds lined up in different formations and crossed the sky. More migratory birds rested and found food in the water. The scene was spectacular and attracted the public to stop and watch. It is reported that in January, the number of various herons, gulls, geese, etc. reached a peak, exceeding 100,000. In order to protect birds, the Shenzhen Municipal Government has specifically issued relevant laws and regulations. Since 2014, Shenzhen Bay has been classified as a prohibited fishing zone. All breeding and fishing activities are prohibited throughout the year, and the validity period ends on April 30, 2024.
"The core of the controversy caused by this EIA announcement is that the construction scope belongs to the Shenzhen Bay intertidal zone and shallow water wetland, but the report did not assess the impact of the project on the most familiar migratory birds and mangroves in this wetland." Cai Zhiyang, assistant research professor at the School of Engineering, told China News Weekly that relevant studies have found that waterbirds are active in this area. "Through radio, satellite tracking technology and coding flags, researchers have analyzed the actions of some marked waterbirds. According to the trajectory, it is found that waterbirds will continue to travel between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The eastern part of Shenzhen Bay, including the east of Shenzhen Bay Bridge and the area where the channel dredging project (phase one) is planned, are within the scope of Shenzhen Bay waterbird activities. "
He was worried that dredging of shipping routes would threaten the living space of waterbirds. "For migratory birds coming to Shenzhen Bay for winter, all they need is sufficient food and space, safe activities and rest environment." Cai Zhiyang introduced to "China News Weekly", "The most intuitive impact is that human activities on the waterway Interference caused the disappearance of the space that could be used by migratory birds. Migratory birds could not bear frequent cruise and construction boat trips and gave up this foraging and resting place. "
Channel dredging will completely change the benthic ecological environment in the dredging area. The “Report” of the EIA even mentioned that “the bottom area of the project directly damaged by construction is about 76.2125 hectares. The animals inside and under this area will all be lost due to the excavation of the bottom mud, and some of their swimming ability will be Poor benthic swimming creatures will also be injured or excavated due to lack of evasion. After the construction is completed, the benthic creatures in the area will gradually recover within a certain period of time. "
"The loss of benthic organisms in the new channel area is a potential loss of food for migratory birds." Cai Zhiyang added that not only that, the suspended sediment generated during the dredging process will spread and migrate with the tidal current and affect a larger area of the sea. Suspended sediment makes the sea water turbid, and the number of plankton, benthic organisms and fish in the area may also decrease. For waterbirds, the range of food shortages will continue to expand. During the channel operation, regular dredging is required, which means that the impact will likely continue.
It is not good news for the precious mangroves on the coast. Wang Yongjun, a Shenzhen mangrove ecological research expert and senior forestry engineer, told the local media that water pollution in Shenzhen Bay caused during construction will also affect the growth of mangrove seedlings.
"Does the development of the waterway affect the mangrove forest? What is the scope of the impact? Will the construction of the waterway and the cruise ship's round trip interfere with the feeding and reproduction of birds? Where should these birds go?" The Mangrove Forest Foundation ( MCF) Deputy Secretary-General Li Shen publicly stated that the EIA report did not mention the impact on birds, mangroves, and bottom organisms.
In addition, the Blue Association and the Guangzhou Zhuwan Renhe Eco-Environmental Research Center both pointed out that the Shenzhen Bay Waterway Dredging Line passes through the No. 166 Shenzhen Bay Important Coastal Wetland Restricted Red Line Area and is close to the No. 167 Shenzhen Bay Important Coastal Tourist Area Restricted Red Line Area, the second phase project is very likely to pass through the Shenzhen Bay Mangrove Restricted Red Line Area. The Ma Haipeng team introduced that the ecological red line, even the restrictive red line, strictly prohibits reclamation and other development activities that may change the natural properties of the sea area and destroy the functions of the wetland ecosystem. If this route is not dredging the channel, but only sailing, it is eligible, but the project involves underwater construction, which will change the hydrodynamics and the appearance of the bottom, and it will definitely not pass.
Faced with public doubts, on March 25, the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau responded that according to the "Guangdong Marine Red Line", the area where the Shenzhen Bay Channel Dredging Project (Phase 1) is located does not belong to the Guangdong Marine Red Line, and the project areas are all located in Shenzhen jurisdiction. Ma Haipeng still has objections to this. He called the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau, and the other party replied, "The basis is from the EIA, and the red line issue is still under discussion by the EIA unit."
Wang Yongjun pointed out that the ecosystem of Shenzhen Bay is a whole, including Futian Mangrove Wetland and Hong Kong Mai Po Mangrove Wetland. The publicized channel dredging is actually a new excavation, which is a new project. The environmental impact is not as simple as dredging. It should include a complete environmental assessment of Futian Mangrove Wetland and Hong Kong Mai Po Wetland.
Sloppy EIA report
In addition to worrying that the dredging of the waterway will affect the ecology of Shenzhen Bay, the careful public immediately discovered that the EIA report was suspected of plagiarism and fraud.
The team of Ma Haipeng pointed out that the Shenzhen Bay project was repeatedly written as the Zhanjiang project in the report, which was obviously a copy and paste of the patchwork EIA report. According to statistics from non-profit organizations, the environmental assessment report appeared 35 times “Zhanjiang”. The report even wrote: "This project is rebuilding and expanding on the existing waterway ... will not cause a significant adverse impact on the existing mangrove forest in Zhanjiang Bay" "Shenzhen Bay Waterway Dredging Project is to implement the national economic and social development of Zhanjiang City "The embodiment of the Five 'Plan" is ridiculous.
The error in the report text and the huge difference in the monitoring values also caused Ma Haipeng's team to question the scientificity, authenticity and effectiveness of the EIA report. In their research report, they found that the project started in December 2019, but a lot of survey data mentioned in the article mentioned that the South China Sea Oceanic Office conducted field testing in 2017 and 2018. Ma Haipeng believes: "This is obviously not logical, and the research content of other institutions can be cited in the relevant evaluation, but the report does not indicate any data sources, and all are written to be monitored by the South China Sea." In addition, the Ma Haipeng team also noted The report uses the monitoring value from Shenzhen Bay to the Pearl River Estuary as the value of the Shenzhen Bay dredging channel for evaluation.
In the face of public doubts, on March 27, the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau terminated the EIA announcement, and the report was prepared by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanography (the South China Sea Institute for short) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On the evening of March 28, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment publicly stated that it would investigate the suspected plagiarism and counterfeiting of the environmental assessment report of the Shenzhen Bay Waterway Dredging Project (Phase I), and interviewed the relevant person in charge and report of the South China Sea Institute on the same day. The compiler of the book.
On April 1, the official website of South China Sea Marine announced the results of the investigation, admitting that there was plagiarism in the report. The announcement stated: "The content of the report involved is the same or highly similar to the qualitative analysis part of the environmental impact assessment report" Zhanjiang Port 300,000-ton Waterway Reconstruction and Expansion Project Environmental Report "prepared by the institute, and plagiarism does exist; the report is responsible for The person Xu Yufen did not follow the standard procedures and approved by our institute, and submitted public documents to the outside world privately, which caused bad influence and was directly responsible; the institute was used as the "Shenzhen Bay Channel Dredging Project (Phase I) sea area use demonstration, environmental impact assessment and tidal mud Sand Mathematical Model Special Report "Technical Consulting Contract Undertaking Unit, Inadequate Supervision of Employees' Job Behaviors, As a result, Xu Yufen did not strictly implement the rules and regulations, and submitted results documents without review and seal."
The South China Sea Institute stated that it would immediately suspend the project contract and refund all costs, and would not continue to participate in the project in the future. Xu Yufen, the person directly responsible for the project, ceased all project work, conducted investigations and rectification, and the relevant business management department coordinated others to take over with the consent of the entrusting party.
This incident also alarmed the Guangdong Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment. The head of the Environmental Assessment Department of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Eco-Environment stated that he would resolutely crack down on the fraudulent acts of environmental assessment documents. Regarding the Shenzhen Bay incident, a joint provincial and municipal investigation team has been established with the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment to investigate the suspected counterfeiting of EIA technical units and will punish relevant responsible units and persons in accordance with the law.
The production and release of the entire EIA report seemed very hasty. According to the announcement of the South China Sea Ocean Research Institute, on December 4, 2019, Xu Yufen received the commission and cooperated with Guangdong Hairun Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. and registered surveyor Xia Xianrong to complete the environmental assessment report of Shenzhen Bay Channel Dredging within three months. .
Zhou Junmin, director of the Industrial Economic Research Center of the China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, told China News Weekly that the publicly announced EIA program looks too sloppy, "It seems that it is enough to dig a channel. This method is definitely problematic. It is not Solve problems systematically, including waterbirds, fish, mangroves, etc., and have corresponding protection solutions. "
Wang Yongjun once told the Southern Metropolis Daily that "plagiarism" is no longer a worthy error compared to professional loopholes. "But this does reflect the attitude of the construction unit and the evaluation unit towards this report. Sensitive projects are treated in such a playful manner. "
He believes that in addition to the evaluation unit, the construction unit should be held accountable. Nanhai Institute's strength business does not have bird research, and the construction unit should take this issue into consideration when bidding, and it can be combined, and then find a unit that is good at bird ecology to add content. In the first half of 2019, Wang Yongjun participated in the scientific demonstration of this project as an expert. He remembered that the invited experts of Peking University Graduate School unanimously believed that this was a very sensitive project: "At that time everyone's opinions were very clear, and they were also submitted to the Transportation Bureau. I think basically this project was shot, but I did not expect They made another environmental assessment. "
Route development and ecological protection
The Shenzhen Bay Waterway Dredging Project is part of the Shenzhen Coastal Cruise Tourism Project "Look at Shenzhen at Sea" to upgrade routes. The purpose of the project is to create a city image and appreciate Shenzhen's different beauty from the sea.
At the end of November 2017, "Watch Shenzhen at Sea" set sail for the first time. The project is led by Shenzhen Culture and Sports Tourism Bureau and China Merchants Shekou. Shenzhen Xunlong Shipping Co., Ltd., a professional company engaged in water passenger transportation in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao, is the main body of the project. According to reports, this route started along Shekou Cruise Home Port-SCT Shekou Container Terminal-Shenzhen Bay Bridge-Shekou Cruise Home Port, with a flight time of 100 minutes and two flights per day.
Song Ding, director of the Tourism and Real Estate Research Center of China Comprehensive Development Research Institute, once said, "Looking at Shenzhen from the sea" is a very valuable tourist route to Shenzhen from the perspective of tourism: "Looking at Shenzhen from the sea is a very important and very important The shocking large angle of view also allows more people to recognize the city's endowment. "
Zhou Junmin, who has lived in Shenzhen for 20 years, also believes that "seeing Shenzhen at sea" is a new excitement for the city. As a seaside city, Shenzhen has been busy with economic development for many years, and it has only been in recent years that it has begun to truly get close to the sea. The "city parlor" Shenzhen Bay Park was only opened to the public in 2011. Shenzhen lacks historical and cultural tourism resources, and "seeing Shenzhen at sea" has injected new vitality. However, he also mentioned that it may be due to the lack of convenience of the terminal and the channel, or because the operation of the project is still in the exploration period. As a Shenzhen citizen, the influence of the project is very low, and the operation is far from achieving the desired effect. According to public data, as of the end of September 2019, the "Look at Shenzhen" route opened for two years, with a total passenger flow of more than 50,000 passengers.
The controversial EIA "Report" also pointed out that there are three major problems with the "Shenzhen at Sea" cruise ship tourism project: first, the existing routes have not fully displayed the highlights of the city; second, the night route of the existing routes has not formed a landscape; third, the operating ships unprofessional.
Therefore, the official decided to start a study on the extension of the route to the inside of the Shenzhen Bay Bridge to meet the needs of tourists to "see Shenzhen at sea" in all directions. The planned route from Shekou Port Area to Shenzhen River Estuary is 17 kilometers in length and is a 300-ton coastal route. The first phase of the project to Talent Park requires 4 kilometers of dredging channels and 48.4386 hectares of sea area to be dredged without occupying the coastline. The total investment exceeds 100 million yuan.
However, Ma Haipeng's team noted that although the project title is Channel Dredging, Shenzhen Bay currently has no channel, and the project should be a newly excavated channel. After the dredging of the construction, a series of continuous investments such as the construction of cruise ships, the construction of docks in Talent Park, the construction of lighting belts, and the anti-collision measures of the Shenzhen Bay Bridge are also required. At the same time, Shenzhen Bay is a silt area, and it is necessary to invest in dredging on a regular basis. The investment of more than 100 million yuan in the first phase is only used for early dredging.
The upgrade of the "Shenzhen at Sea" project started last year. In September 2019, at the two-year anniversary ceremony of "Watching Shenzhen at Sea", the official announced that it would upgrade the cruise route to extend to the east side of the Shenzhen Bay Bridge. At the beginning of November 2019, the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau organized relevant departments to Shenzhen Talent Park to study the terminal selection plan for the "Shenzhen at Sea" project, and plans to build a 2,000-ton passenger berth in Shenzhen Talent Park. This project has even been incorporated into the work plan of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government. On the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on August 26, 2020, the newly built 2000-ton electric environmental protection luxury cruise ship will be opened to the waters near the Talent Park. .
Recently, the EIA was suspected of plagiarism and fraud, how should the project be promoted next? "China News Weekly" submitted an interview letter to the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau. As of press time, no response has been received.
When the public worried about the development of the Shenzhen Bay waterway, some people put forward different voices: As a seaside city, Qingdao, Xiamen, Shanghai and other cities can develop sea cruises, why not Shenzhen Bay?
In the eyes of environmentalists, Shenzhen ’s experience in other coastal cities is difficult to refer to. "The objective conditions of Shenzhen Bay are not comparable to other coastal cities such as Shanghai. They are conditional. For example, the Huangpu River in Shanghai has buildings and existing waterways around it, which can be developed without dredging." Ma Haipeng told China "Newsweek" said that Shenzhen Bay did not have any conditions to launch a project.
More importantly, Shenzhen Bay has more important ecological value. Cai Zhiyang believes that, for example, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Brisbane, the current (tourist routes) are all using relatively deep water areas, even if there is a tidal effect, but there will not be a large area of intertidal wetlands exposed at low tide. Most importantly, none of these cruise areas have such rich biodiversity and migratory birds.
Ecological protection and tourist routes are not incompatible. Cai Zhiyang believes, "It is just that there has not been too much in-depth discussion among stakeholders, especially those who have not had the background of ecological (mangrove, bird) environmental protection, including representatives of various protected areas in Shenzhen Bay and mangrove ecological park. participate."
"To protect the precious mangroves, but the protection of mangroves and the development of tourism is not a one-to-one relationship." Song Ding explained that at present, the best way is for the expert group to comprehensively evaluate the overall resources of the area and then consider the route Whether it needs to be changed.
"The project should not be launched in a hurry, but must be built into a 40-year-old classic project of Shenzhen at the age of 40, and can no longer be made into a short-sighted project that will be demolished in 20 years like the Shenzhen Stadium and Xiaomeisha Ocean World." Zhou Junmin Said. In addition, how to eliminate the old methods of approval, construction and collection, but there is no old routine of high-quality operation and fair and transparent supervision? Until there is no convincing solution to these problems, the "Shenzhen at Sea" upgrade project is still affordable.
This is no small challenge. Lei Xiaohan is an assistant engineer of the Municipal Planning and Transportation Office of the Shenzhen Branch of the China Academy of Planning. In her view, Shenzhen Bay has to face the dilemma of "double high demand" between people and birds: "Shenzhen Bay is the migration of birds from Siberia to Australia. It is one of the only remaining habitats on the route. At the same time, it is surrounded by the core area of Shenzhen city and is a bay area that is used by human beings. Therefore, how to balance resources has become an important issue for the protection and development of Shenzhen Bay. "
Behind the difficult problems of the protection and utilization of Shenzhen Bay is the more common intertidal wetland dilemma. Cai Zhiyang's research found that in the past few decades, intertidal wetlands have been lost on a global scale with the development of the human economy. In the past 30 years, about 15% of intertidal wetlands have been lost globally. In Shenzhen, between 1990 and 2015, about 40% of the wetlands were developed into land. At present, the only remaining intertidal wetlands are basically limited to the east side of Shenzhen Bay, including Futian National Nature Reserve, Mangrove Ecological Park, Hong Kong Maipu-Houwan International Important Wetland, and several surrounding ecological red line areas.
"Shenzhen's intertidal natural wetlands have made a lot of concessions for Shenzhen's economic development in the past few decades. Do we really need to fish out?" Cai Zhiyang asked back.
"China News Weekly" No.13, 2020
Statement: The publication of the "China News Weekly" manuscript is subject to written authorization