China News Service, Xiamen, February 21st: Why does the management of Xiamen Yuandang Lake attract international attention?
——Exclusive interview with Lu Zhikui, professor of the Institute of Public Policy of Xiamen University
China News Service reporter Long Min
In December 2023, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni visited the Yuandang Lake in Xiamen, China, and said that Yuandang Lake is a typical example of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. China has many practices in ecological and environmental protection that are worthy of Cambodia's Learn from each other.
As early as the early 1990s, the comprehensive management of Yuandang Lake was evaluated by the United Nations Development Program as a "Demonstration Project for Marine Pollution Prevention and Management in East Asian Seas" and was promoted globally. In October 2021, Yuandang Lake ecological restoration, as a typical case of ecological restoration of China's land and space, was selected into theme four of the Ecological Civilization Forum of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity - "Based on natural solutions." Ecological Protection and Restoration” Forum.
Why has the governance of Xiamen Yuandang Lake attracted international attention? What is the Chinese wisdom? Lu Zhikui, a professor at the Institute of Public Policy of Xiamen University, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East-West Question" to explain.
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
Reporter from China News Service: Today, Yuandang Lake is a city card of Xiamen. What was Yuandang Lake like in the past?
Lu Zhikui:
Yuandang Lake, located in the west of Xiamen Island, was formerly known as Yuandang Port. Fishing boats dock at night, with lights stretching out. "What I love most is that after the tide, the river is full of fishing fires." "Yundang Fishing Fire" is one of the famous "Eight Old Scenes" in Xiamen.
After the establishment of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone, economic construction was vigorously promoted, the population increased rapidly, and the city scale gradually expanded. Because it is located in the core area of the city, there are hundreds of factories clustered around Yuandang Lake, many of which are chemical plants with serious pollution. The sewage is discharged directly into the water body along the open ditch without treatment.
As a result, the ecology of Yuandang Lake has deteriorated sharply, and red tides have appeared frequently. Passers-by cover their noses when passing by, and cars must close their windows in advance when passing by. Residents around the lake keep their windows closed all year round. From being rich in fish and shrimp in the past, it has become an "irritating" smelly lake. The improvement of Yundang Lake has become the expectation of the people.
On December 21, 2023, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and his delegation watched the intangible cultural heritage exhibition at Xiamen Yuandang Academy. Photo by Wang Dongming
Reporter from China News Service: How has the beautiful butterfly transformation of Yuandang Lake gone through a journey of governance?
Lv Zhikui:
The management of Yuandang Lake is not only a modern model of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, but also a vivid epitome of Xiamen’s in-depth promotion of ecological civilization construction and the achievement of high-quality development.
The governance of Yuandang Lake has gone through three stages: In the first stage (1984 to 1997), facing the increasingly serious ecological problems of Yuandang Lake, Xiamen City began to implement a pollution interception plan as early as 1984, but the progress was slow.
On March 30, 1988, Comrade Xi Jinping, then member of the Standing Committee of the Xiamen Municipal Party Committee and Executive Vice Mayor, presided over a special meeting on strengthening the comprehensive management of Yuandang Lake. The meeting creatively proposed "governing the lake according to law, intercepting sewage, dredging and building banks, The 20-word policy of "activating water bodies and beautifying the environment" has gradually explored a path for ecological restoration and management of Yuandang Lake that is in line with Xiamen's actual conditions.
In December 2021, guzheng performers played by Yuandang Lake in Xiamen, Fujian. Photo by Wang Dongming
In the second stage (1997 to 2011), starting in the 1990s, Xiamen began a systematic project with the goal of building an international metropolis, and new progress was made in the management of Yuandang Lake. From 1993 to 1999, Xiamen launched the second phase of the comprehensive improvement project with the goal of "intercepting new sewage and ensuring the safety of flood control and drainage." From 2000 to 2009, Xiamen carried out the third phase of the comprehensive improvement project with the goal of "dredging and renovating new sewage, intercepting new sewage, and improving the ecological environment of Yuandang Lake". From 2009 to the end of 2016, Xiamen carried out the fourth phase of the comprehensive improvement project with the goal of "no sewage entering the lake on sunny days". After the completion of the fourth phase of comprehensive improvement, Yuandang Lake has basically achieved the treatment goals, and the ecological environment has been greatly improved.
In the third stage (since 2012), happy rivers and lakes have become the goal of modernizing river and lake management in China. Guided by the construction of a high-quality ecological civilization system in the lake area, Xiamen has revised and promulgated a series of laws and regulations to provide protection and construction for the Yuandang Lake area. Provides good legal protection. At present, Xiamen has promulgated the "Measures for the Protection of the Yuandang Lake Area of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone" and the "Regulations on the River and Lake Chief System of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone".
High-efficiency management of happy rivers and lakes cannot be separated from social participation and collaboration. In August 2020, the Xiamen River Chief System Office and the School of Public Affairs of Xiamen University jointly established the Xiamen River Chief Research Institute. In November 2022, the Xiamen Happy Rivers and Lakes Promotion Association was established.
Aerial photography of Yuandang Lake in the center of Xiamen and the park built around the lake. Photo by Wang Dongming
Reporter from China News Service: Why has the governance of Yuandang Lake attracted international attention? What is the Chinese wisdom?
Lu Zhikui:
The ecological protection and management of rivers and lakes is an important part of Xiamen's higher-level construction of a high-quality, high-appearance, modern international city. From "a pool of stagnant water" to the "urban green lung" and "city living room" with rippling blue waves and hundreds of herons flying together, from the "Yandang Fishing Fire" that regrettably disappeared in the past to the more dazzling "Yundang Night" today, Yundang Lake 30 Over the years of continuous improvement and protection, we have achieved a transformation from point to area, from underwater to shore, and from single management to joint management.
Yuandang Lake management was not only rated as a "Demonstration Project for Marine Pollution Prevention and Management in East Asian Seas" by the United Nations Development Program and promoted globally, it was also selected for the Ecological Civilization Forum of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
The transformation of Yuandang Lake is a Chinese-style modern model of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and it is also a window to a beautiful city. What can be seen through this window is Xiamen’s high degree of consciousness in adhering to high-quality development. Successfully handling the relationship between high-quality development and high-level protection, the relationship between key tasks and collaborative governance, the relationship between law-based governance and systemic governance, and the relationship between government governance and social collaboration and public participation, lies deep in the unique code of building a beautiful China.
In August 2020, citizens fed pigeons in the park by Yuandang Lake. Photo by Wang Dongming
The city is located among a lake with green waters and green mountains. It condenses the changes in development concepts, development methods and ecological governance during the transformation of an island city into a bay city in the process of China's rapid industrialization and urbanization. It witnesses the vivid development of a beautiful model city in China. practice. The governance practice of Yuandang Lake vividly illustrates the major transformation of ecological civilization construction from key rectification to systematic governance, from passive response to proactive action, from global environmental governance participant to leader, from practical exploration to scientific A major shift in theoretical guidance.
The management of Yuandang Lake has contributed Chinese wisdom to global urban ecological construction. Use the natural way to nourish the life of all things. This is the essence of Chinese-style modernization, and it is also the Chinese wisdom of the unity of nature and man, and the coexistence of all things. Water management requires good governance. One of the connotations of good governance is to adhere to people's supremacy and problem orientation, make good use of systematic thinking and institutional advantages to coordinate all aspects of the entire process of water ecological governance, distinguish priorities, cause and effect relationships, and identify the crux.
In March 2021, egrets flying on Yuandang Lake in Xiamen, "Heron Island". Photo by Wang Dongming
Reporter from China News Service: At present, China is continuing to carry out an in-depth battle to defend clean water and promote "human-water harmony." How should we learn from Western experience and comprehensively promote the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature through the construction of Beautiful China?
Lu Zhikui:
The construction of ecological civilization is a major issue in global governance and is related to the future and destiny of human society. From a global perspective, the global ecological environment faces three major challenges: resource and environmental capacity overload, intra- and inter-generational unfairness in risk distribution, and low public awareness of environmental protection.
Western countries have also accumulated a lot of experience in the process of building ecological civilization. Resource conservation is the foundation, national action is the foundation, incentives and constraints are the key, and the rule of law is the guarantee.
To learn from Western experience and comprehensively promote the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature through the construction of Beautiful China, we need to do three things:
First, strengthen the execution of various systems. It is necessary to establish an authoritative and efficient system execution mechanism and supervision and accountability mechanism, so that China's ecological civilization system can "move" and "live" from a static paper, and promote the better transformation and implementation of institutional advantages into governance effectiveness.
In September 2021, in order to welcome the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to be held in Kunming, a three-dimensional flower bed was unveiled and attracted citizens to watch. Photo by Liu Ranyang
Second, expand the influence of ecological culture. The unity of nature and man, the harmony between man and water, and the harmonious coexistence of man and nature are the outstanding traditional Chinese culture. Chinese-style modernization contains a unique view of ecological civilization. Therefore, to comprehensively promote the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature through the construction of Beautiful China, it is required to pay attention to the exploration of China's excellent traditional ecological cultural ideas and resources in the construction of beautiful cities and beautiful villages, launch a number of ecological cultural products, and promote the prosperity and development of ecological culture.
China should form a five-party collaborative linkage mechanism of families, communities, schools, society and the government, fully integrate ecological civilization as a culture into the daily life system, community governance system, national education system, social interaction system and government governance system to create an ecological civilization Build a national action system; improve the ecological cultural system based on ecological values as the criterion, cultivate the mainstream values of ecological civilization and the digital ecological civilization concept of green wisdom, establish an ecological cultural communication system through multiple channels, and accelerate the formation of ecological consciousness for all people and society.
Third, enhance the expressiveness of Chinese discourse. To comprehensively promote the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature through the construction of Beautiful China, we must not only do it well, but also say it well. In the process of restructuring and reshaping the normative discourse of the concept of global ecological and environmental governance, the practice of building an ecological civilization of beautiful China, beautiful cities, and beautiful countryside that has international influence, wins respect from the world, and enriches human civilization is an important step in building a discourse system with Chinese characteristics and A solid foundation for an autonomous knowledge system.
This requires theoretically explaining to the world the ideological, spiritual, institutional and organizational power behind the historic, turning and overall changes in ecological and environmental protection in China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China in the new era, and clearly explaining to the world the relationship between people and The Chinese-style modernization path of harmonious coexistence with nature and the new form of human ecological civilization created by it will comprehensively enhance the international communication effectiveness of China's independent ecological civilization discourse, and realize that Chinese thought and Chinese discourse on ecological civilization construction have become an indispensable part of the global governance discourse system. . (over)
Interviewee profile:
Lu Zhikui is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Public Affairs/Public Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, a member of the National Public Administration Professional Degree (MPA) Graduate Education Steering Committee, an editorial board member of the "China Emergency Management Science" magazine, and an ecological civilization construction consulting expert in Xiamen City. Vice President of the Xiamen River Chief System Research Institute, participated in the compilation of the series "Case Studies on Implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Overcoming Difficulties in Reform, Development and Stability·Ecological Civilization Construction", and participated in the drafting of the "Xiamen Special Economic Zone River and Lake Chief System" Regulations", published three monographs, and scientific research achievements won the Ministry of Education's Higher Education Social Science Outstanding Achievements Award.