Expert advice on destructive development of the World Geopark
Formulate the Law of Natural Reserves to clarify the responsibilities of the department
□ Our reporter Pu Xiaolei
□ Intern Du Xiaohan
The speed of legislative protection has not been able to surpass the speed of destruction-the legislative process of the "Regulations on the Protection of China's Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark" has not been officially launched, and the Fengshan Global Geopark has been damaged "scarred".
On April 22, the Seventh Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection Team notified the destructive mining and illegal construction of Fengshan Global Geopark in Hechi City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The notification pointed out that the protection of Fengshan Global Geopark made way for project development, causing national-level geological heritage sites and some protected areas to be used for mining and real estate development in violation of regulations. The problem is very serious.
In September last year, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the People's Congress of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region recommended that the legislative process for the formulation of the "Regulations on the Protection of China's Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark" should be initiated in due course.
In recent years, it is not uncommon for geoparks to be destroyed.
In an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily, some experts suggested that the law on nature reserves should be formulated as soon as possible to increase the protection of nature reserves, including geoparks.
Professor Du Qun of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics School of Law said in an interview with reporters on May 13 that there are already many laws and regulations on the protection of geological relics and geoparks. The laws include environmental protection law, urban and rural planning law, land management law, and mineral resources. Resources Law, administrative regulations include "Nature Reserve Regulations", "Regulations on Scenic Spots", "Palaeontological Fossils Protection Regulations", and departmental regulations include "Regulations on the Protection and Management of Geological Relics". The legal basis is relatively complete, but the authority of law enforcement is not high. .
At present, under the background of the construction of a natural protected area system with national parks as the main body and the construction of ecological civilization with the strictest ecological environment protection system, the law enforcement of geoparks is expected to be strengthened.
Du Qun believes that the decentralization of legal norms and non-specialization of legislation have affected the effectiveness of law enforcement and compliance.
In the future, the legislation of nature reserves with national parks as the main body should make special provisions for the protection of geoparks, and it is necessary to give play to the institutional advantages of ecological civilization construction.
Establishing the red line of ecological protection in legislation to regulate and rigidly restrict geoparks, especially global geoparks and national geoparks, forms a strong "green shield" guarantee for the implementation of the law.
Some local governments pay more attention to declaration than protection
Fengshan Karst Geopark is located in Hechi, Guangxi. It was approved as a national geopark by the former Ministry of Land and Resources in September 2005. It was approved as a global geopark by UNESCO in October 2010. It is currently the only global geopark in Guangxi. It has unique geological relics such as the world's large stalagmites, the world's skylights, the world's highest underground karst canyon, the second-span natural bridge in China, and the ancient mystery mandarin duck spring.
Such a geopark with extremely high aesthetic value, scientific value, and popular science value has been extremely severely damaged due to barbaric development.
Regarding the destructive mining of Fengshan Global Geopark, the Central Seventh Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection Team directly pointed to three major issues in the notification-illegal mining, serious ecological damage; illegal development of real estate, serious damage to the geology and landforms; deliberate adjustment of regulations , Protection makes way for development.
In recent years, the destruction of the geopark has occurred many times.
In 2014, according to media reports, the Danxia landform in Chenzhou, Hunan was damaged by China Resources Power Plant, and the sewage disposal site was set in the "red line" of the National Geopark; on April 15, 2017, three rock climbers including Zhang Yongming drilled holes with electric drills. Climbing the Giant Mang Peak in the Sanqingshan Scenic Area of the World Geopark by destructive methods such as hitting rock nails and hanging ropes has caused irreparable and serious damage to the rock column of the Giant Mang Peak...
In the geopark destruction incidents that have occurred in recent years, in addition to the improper and illegal actions of tourists and enterprises, the inaction and chaos of relevant government departments are important reasons.
The report pointed out that the sabotage of Fengshan Global Geopark was not carried out in a sneaky manner, but was completed with the "close cooperation" of relevant localities and departments.
The report stated that the Fengshan County Party Committee and the county government did not have a good understanding of their ideas, acted in disorder and inaction, ignored the responsibility of protection, carried out real estate development in the name of tourism development, launched a health care project, and built many high-rise hotels and health centers.
The management committee of Fengshan Global Geopark has lax supervision and improper performance of duties, and has turned a blind eye to the long-standing illegal projects in the park protection area.
Qin Tianbao, director of the Institute of Environmental Law of Wuhan University, said that for nature reserves such as the World Geopark, some local governments have emphasized declarations and neglected protection. "Earlier, some local governments thought that the establishment of geoparks could vigorously develop tourism. And other related industries. It was later discovered that this was not the case. After the declaration was successful, it was subject to many restrictions. After finding that the benefits were not large, it was easy to neglect management, and even figure out ways to modify the plan to demarcate the areas that need to be developed from the protected area. This may be An important reason for the severe damage to the geopark".
Lack of special laws and regulations leads to weak protection
At the third meeting of the 13th National People’s Congress of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in January 2020, Zhou Wuhong and other 10 representatives from the Baise City delegation put forward the “Proposal on Formulation of the Regulations on the Protection of China’s Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark”, which was proposed to be passed Special legislation is used to realize sustainable and healthy development of geopark resource protection and development.
In this regard, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the People's Congress of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region believes that it is necessary to formulate the Regulations on the Protection of China's Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark.
It is recommended that the people's governments of Baise City and Hechi City, in accordance with the relevant provisions and requirements of the legislative procedures of local laws and regulations, pay close attention to the investigation and demonstration work in the early stage of legislation, and initiate the legislative procedures for formulating regulations in due course.
"The destruction of Fengshan Global Geopark also proved the urgency and necessity of perfecting legislation in this field." Qin Tianbao said.
Regarding the protection of geological heritage resources, it is mentioned in my country's Environmental Protection Law and other laws and regulations.
The Environmental Protection Law stipulates that measures should be taken to protect natural relics such as geological structures and cultural relics, ancient trees and famous trees that have significant scientific and cultural value, and it is strictly forbidden to destroy them.
The Urban and Rural Planning Law requires that the overall planning of urban construction must include the protection of natural and historical cultural heritage and disaster prevention and mitigation.
The Land Management Law and the Mineral Resources Law also have corresponding regulations on the protection of geological relics.
"But it is undeniable that my country still has no special laws and regulations for the protection of geoparks. Only the "Regulations on the Protection and Management of Geological Relics" issued by the Ministry of In situ Mines in 1995, but whether it is from the legal effect or the content regulations. Look, the regulations can no longer meet the needs of the new situation." Du Qun said.
In order to solve the problems encountered in the protection of geoparks, some places have legislated to protect geoparks in recent years.
In October 2006, the 23rd meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress of Heilongjiang Province voted and passed the "Regulations on the Protection of Wudalianchi Global Geopark in Heilongjiang Province", which became my country's first local legislation regulating the world geopark.
Legislate to clarify the supervision and management responsibilities of relevant functional departments
The General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Establishing a Natural Reserve System with National Parks as the Main Body" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"), which clearly pointed out that in accordance with the authenticity of the natural ecosystem, Integrity, systemicity and inherent laws, based on management objectives and effectiveness and drawing on international experience, natural reserves are divided into three categories: national parks, nature reserves, and natural parks according to their ecological value and protection intensity.
Natural parks include various natural parks such as forest parks, geological parks, marine parks, and wetland parks.
"According to the classification of the "Guiding Opinions", geoparks belong to the category of natural parks. Therefore, when legislation on protection at the national level, it is possible to consider enacting a law on nature reserves, which can be used as a higher-level law to regulate the behavior of various nature reserves. In it, special regulations can be made for the protection of natural parks such as geoparks; then special administrative regulations can be formulated according to this law, and special protections can be carried out according to the characteristics of geoparks." Qin Tianbao said.
The incomplete special laws and regulations on geoparks are also a microcosm of the legislation on natural reserves in my country.
"In fact, not only geoparks need to be protected urgently, but many other nature reserves are also facing problems such as inadequate protection and overdevelopment, and they urgently need to be regulated by legislation." Qin Tianbao said.
Liu Dongsheng, deputy director of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, pointed out that currently, the specific laws and regulations for different types of nature reserves are incomplete.
Different types of nature reserves have their own characteristics in terms of natural attributes, protection targets, utilization values, institutional mechanisms, policies and measures, supervision and law enforcement, etc. Some are not yet legally regulated, and the existing ones need to be revised and improved urgently.
In this regard, it is recommended that the law on nature reserves be included in the legislative plan of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress as soon as possible, and a system of "basic law + special protected land law" should be established.
Qin Tianbao believes that clarification of government responsibilities is one of the important contents of the legislation. It is recommended that when formulating the nature protection land law, the supervision and management responsibilities of relevant functional departments such as forests and grasses, ecological environment, natural resources, etc. should be clarified, and prohibitive regulations and responsibilities should be strengthened. Hold accountable.