Opinions of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening Zonal Management and Control of Ecological Environment
(March 6, 2024)
Ecological environment zoning management and control is an environmental management system that implements differentiated and precise management and control in sub-regions with the goal of ensuring ecological functions and improving environmental quality. It is an important measure to improve the modernization level of ecological environment management.
Implementing zoning management and control of the ecological environment, strictly observing ecological protection red lines, environmental quality bottom lines, and resource utilization limits, and scientifically guiding various development, protection, and construction activities are of great significance to promoting high-quality development and building a modernization in which humans and nature coexist harmoniously.
In order to strengthen the zoning management and control of the ecological environment, with the consent of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the following opinions are hereby put forward.
1. Overall requirements
To strengthen zoning management and control of the ecological environment, we must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Party, implement the deployment of the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference, and completely, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, coordinately promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, fully respect the laws of nature and regional differences, fully implement the main functional zone strategy, fully integrate land spatial planning and use control, and achieve high-level protection Promote high-quality development, create high-quality life, and strive to build a beautiful China where man and nature coexist harmoniously.
——Ecology first, green development.
We must adhere to respecting nature, complying with nature, and protecting nature, guard the boundaries of natural ecological security and the bottom line of environmental quality, implement natural ecological security responsibilities, and promote green and low-carbon development.
——Source prevention and system protection.
Improve the source prevention system of the ecological environment, coordinate the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, strengthen biodiversity protection, and strengthen the coordinated control of multiple pollutants and regional coordinated governance.
——Accurate science and control according to law.
Focus on prominent ecological and environmental problems in regions and river basins, implement precise and scientific policies, and establish zoning and classification management and control strategies from problem identification to solutions in accordance with laws and regulations.
——Clear responsibilities and coordinate linkage.
Top-level design should be done at the national level, local party committees and governments should implement the main responsibilities, and relevant departments should strengthen communication and coordination, establish a division of labor and cooperation working mechanism, and improve policy unity, rule consistency, and execution synergy.
By 2025, the ecological environment zoning management and control system will be basically established, and a comprehensive, accurate and scientific ecological environment zoning management and control system will be initially formed.
By 2035, an ecological environment zoning management system with sound systems, smooth mechanisms, and efficient operations will be fully established to provide strong support for the fundamental improvement of the ecological environment and the basic realization of the goal of Beautiful China.
2. Comprehensively promote ecological and environmental zoning management and control
(1) Formulate an ecological environment zoning management and control plan.
Deeply implement the main functional zone strategy, fully implement the "National Land and Spatial Planning Outline (2021-2035)", and formulate a plan focusing on the implementation of ecological protection red lines, environmental quality bottom lines, and hard constraints on resource utilization, based on ecological environment management and control units. An ecological environment zoning management and control plan using the ecological environment access list as a means and supported by an information platform.
Adhere to the principles of national guidance, provincial coordination, and municipal implementation, and compile and release ecological environment zoning management and control plans within this administrative region at different levels.
Provincial and municipal-level ecological environment zoning management and control plans are prepared by the government organizations at the same level, fully connected with the "one map" system of land and spatial planning, and reported to the higher-level ecological environment authority for filing before being released and implemented.
(2) Determine the ecological environment management and control unit.
Based on regional characteristics such as ecological environment structure, function, quality, etc., through environmental assessment and on the basis of management zoning of various ecological environment elements such as atmosphere, water, soil, ecology, sound, and ocean, the results of the "three zones and three lines" delineation will be implemented to Based on the ecological protection red line, the areas to be protected are demarcated and the priority protection units of the ecological environment are determined; areas with high pressure to improve ecological environment quality, high resource and energy consumption intensity, concentrated pollutant emissions, serious ecological damage, and high environmental risks are selected as the areas. The main body is to identify areas where the contradiction between development and protection is prominent, and determine key ecological environment management and control units; other areas other than the ecological environment priority protection units and key ecological environment management and control units are subject to general management and control.
(3) Prepare an ecological environment access list.
Implement the negative list for market access, focus on solving outstanding ecological and environmental problems according to the positioning of ecological environment functions and the control requirements of land and space use, systematically integrate existing ecological environment management regulations, accurately prepare a differentiated ecological environment access list, and propose management and control of pollutant emissions , prevent and control environmental risks, and improve resource and energy utilization efficiency and other requirements.
Implement refined management of "one unit, one strategy" according to local conditions. Priority ecological environment protection units must strengthen ecosystem protection and functional maintenance. Key ecological environment management and control units must strengthen pollutant emission control and environmental risk prevention and control in response to prominent ecological environment problems. Others The region must maintain basically stable ecological environment quality.
Where there is great pressure to improve ecological environment quality and where problems and risks are prominent, more precise management and control requirements must be formulated.
(4) Strengthen the sharing of ecological environment zoning management and control information.
Promote information sharing and business collaboration between national and provincial ecological environment zoning management and control systems and other business systems, and strengthen the supporting role in data management, adjustment and update, implementation and application, tracking and evaluation, and supervision and management.
Promote the integration and innovation of new generation information technology, artificial intelligence, etc. with ecological environment zoning management and control, improve online government services and smart decision-making functions, and improve service efficiency.
(5) Coordinate regular adjustments and dynamic updates.
The ecological environment zoning management and control plan remains stable in principle and will be adjusted regularly every five years based on the national economic and social development plan and land spatial planning assessment.
If it is really necessary to update within 5 years, in accordance with the principle of "who publishes it, who updates it", on the basis of fully connecting the national economic and social development plan and the land and space planning, a dynamic update will be carried out, and at the same time, it will be reported to the ecological environment authority at the next level for filing.
If it is updated due to changes in major strategies, ecological environment protection goals, etc., scientific demonstrations should be organized; statutory protection areas such as ecological protection red lines, drinking water source protection areas, and nature reserves are established, adjusted, or merged in accordance with laws and regulations, and laws and regulations have New regulations will be updated simultaneously accordingly.
3. Promote high-quality economic and social development
(6) Serving major national strategies.
Through zoning management and control of the ecological environment, we will strengthen overall protection and systematic governance, support the optimization of major productivity layout, serve the construction of major national infrastructure, and ensure the implementation of major national strategies.
Implement the development strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, promote refined zoning control by unit in the entire Yangtze River basin, strengthen water pollution prevention and environmental risk prevention and control in heavy chemical industries along the river, and prevent heavily polluting enterprises and projects from moving to the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Implement the ecological protection and high-quality development strategy of the Yellow River Basin, implement differentiated zoning control in the upper, middle and lower reaches, optimize the layout of energy, chemical and new energy industries in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, and promote the green, low-carbon and cyclic development of the middle and lower reaches of the industry.
Strengthen the application of ecological and environmental zoning management and control in the adjustment of industry, energy and transportation structures in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Areas, establish an ecological and environmental management and control mechanism for land-coast-sea linkage and regional integration, and guide traditional manufacturing industries to be green and low-carbon Transformation and upgrading and rational layout of strategic emerging industries.
(7) Promote green and low-carbon development.
Implement the relevant national systems and policy requirements for the management of high-energy-consuming, high-emission, and low-level projects, and guide key industries to scientifically layout and orderly transfer to areas with large environmental capacity, strong market demand, and good market security conditions.
Strengthen the management of key ecological and environmental control units, and promote green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading and clean production transformation of traditional industries such as petrochemicals, steel, and building materials.
Improve the construction of environmental infrastructure in industrial parks, promote industrial agglomeration development and centralized pollution control.
Connect the ecological environment access list to guide the orderly vacation of traditional industrial functional spaces in central urban areas with high population density.
Optimize the management of ecological environment priority protection units, encourage the exploration of ecological product value realization models and paths, and enhance ecological carbon sink capabilities.
On the premise of ensuring the diversity, stability, and sustainability of the ecosystem, support the construction of major national strategies, major infrastructure, and people's livelihood security projects.
Implement the construction of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic bases in desert, Gobi and desert areas.
(8) Support comprehensive decision-making.
Strengthen the application of ecological environment zoning management and control results to provide decision-making support for local party committees and governments.
Take the evaluation of the implementation effectiveness of ecological environment zoning management and control as an important basis for optimizing environmental impact assessment management.
Strengthen the guidance of ecological environment zoning control on corporate investment, set up public access rights in accordance with laws and regulations on the ecological environment zoning control information platform, facilitate enterprises to analyze the compliance of projects with ecological environment zoning control requirements, and stimulate the development vitality of business entities.
4. Implement high-level protection of the ecological environment
(9) Maintain the ecological security pattern.
Strictly implement ecological protection red line control requirements.
Focus on ecological protection red lines, improve ecosystem quality, and enhance ecosystem stability and service functions.
Strengthen biodiversity protection and improve the biodiversity protection network.
Strengthen monitoring and early warning and proactively adapt to climate change.
In key areas such as the ecological barrier area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the key ecological areas of the Yellow River, the key ecological areas of the Yangtze River, the Northeast Forest Belt, the Northern Sand Control Belt, the Southern Hilly Mountain Zone, and the Coastal Zone, we will identify outstanding environmental problems in units and implement differentiated management and control of environmental governance. Require.
(10) Promote improvement of environmental quality.
Strengthen the implementation of ecological and environmental zoning management and control, form a closed loop of problem identification, accurate source tracing, and zoning policy implementation, promote the resolution of outstanding ecological and environmental problems, prevent structural and layout environmental risks, and free up capacity and expand space for high-quality development.
Deepen the zoning management and control of the water environment in the basin, coordinate the management of water resources, water environment, and water ecology, strengthen the management of important water ecological spaces such as water source conservation areas, rivers and lakes and their buffer zones in the basin, and strengthen the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution.
Strengthen zoning management and control of the ecological environment in coastal waters, and coordinate land and sea efforts to promote the management of key estuaries and bays.
Comprehensively consider the atmospheric regional transmission rules and spatial layout sensitivity, and strengthen differentiated collaborative management and control by zoning and classification.
Implement classified management of agricultural land and access management of construction land according to the degree of soil pollution and relevant standards.
Strengthen the management of acoustic environment and promote the coordination of land layout in areas where large-scale transportation infrastructure, industrial clusters, etc. are concentrated with noise-sensitive buildings.
Explore the zoning management and control model for groundwater pollution prevention and control, coordinate above and below ground, and formulate differentiated ecological environment access and pollution risk management and control requirements.
(11) Strengthen ecological and environmental protection policy coordination.
Give full play to the fundamental role of ecological environment zoning management and control in the source prevention system, and achieve refined management with full coverage, cross-departmental collaboration, and multi-element integration.
Strengthen the dynamic connection between ecological environment zoning control and land spatial planning, focus on the improvement of ecological environment quality according to the characteristics of development, protection and construction activities in different regions, and implement differentiated ecological environment management by unit. Ecological environment authorities and natural resource authorities must choose Typical areas carry out pilot projects, accumulate experience, improve mechanisms, and form policy synergies.
Carry out collaborative pilot projects for ecological environment zoning management and control on pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and study and implement differentiated regulation policies based on carbon emissions and pollutant emissions.
Strengthen the coordination between ecological environment protection-related policies and ecological environment zoning management and control systems, and incorporate ecological environment zoning management and control requirements into the formulation and revision of ecological environment-related standards and policies.
Encourage all localities to focus on industrial parks, free trade pilot zones, etc., to carry out coordinated and joint reform pilots for ecological environment zoning control and environmental impact assessment, pollution discharge permits, environmental monitoring, law enforcement supervision, etc., and explore the establishment of a full-chain ecological environment management system.
5. Strengthen supervision and assessment
(12) Strengthen supervision and management.
Relevant departments must follow the division of responsibilities, rely on relevant supervision platforms, make full use of big data, satellite remote sensing, drones and other technical means to carry out dynamic monitoring, carry out on-site inspections of outstanding problems and hidden risks and strictly investigate and deal with them in accordance with the law.
Strengthen supervision and law enforcement for priority ecological protection units with significantly reduced ecological functions, key ecological environment management and control units with prominent ecological and environmental problems, and other areas where environmental quality has significantly declined, and promote rectification within a time limit in accordance with laws and regulations.
Incorporate outstanding problems in the implementation of the ecological environment zoning control system into central and provincial ecological environment protection inspections.
(13) Improve assessment and evaluation.
The implementation of ecological environment zoning management and control will be included in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the pollution prevention and control battle. The evaluation results will serve as an important reference for the comprehensive evaluation, rewards and punishments of local leadership and relevant leading cadres.
The ecological environment department of the State Council, together with relevant departments, tracks and understands the implementation of the work. The results of the work serve as an important reference for the construction of the practice innovation base of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".
6. Organizational guarantee
(14) Strengthen organizational leadership.
Uphold the party’s leadership over ecological and environmental zoning management and control.
Local party committees and governments at all levels must strictly implement "the party and government have equal responsibilities, and one post has dual responsibilities" for ecological and environmental protection, improve the work promotion mechanism, regularly study the ecological environment zoning management and control work, and promote sharing, adjustment and update, supervision and implementation and other matters on a regular basis , report the progress of important work in a timely manner, and form a good pattern of linkage between the top and bottom, each performing its duties, and joint management.
Each region can formulate supporting documents based on actual conditions.
(15) Strengthen departmental linkage.
The ecological environment department of the State Council shall work with relevant departments to formulate and improve policies related to ecological environment zoning management and control.
Development and reform departments must actively promote the full connection between ecological environment zoning management and control results and national economic and social development-related plans, and regional planning preparation and implementation.
Natural resources authorities should rely on the "one map" system of territorial spatial planning to share data such as ecological protection red lines, strengthen the connection between ecological environment zoning management and control plans and territorial spatial planning, and jointly conduct relevant research and pilot projects.
The water administrative department is responsible for water resources management, water shoreline management and other related work, implements differentiated management of water resources, reasonably controls the scale of water resources development and utilization, and is linked with ecological environment zoning management and control.
Forestry and grassland authorities should strengthen coordination and linkage between the management of various nature reserves and ecological environment zoning management and control.
Relevant competent departments such as industry and information technology, housing and urban-rural construction, transportation, agriculture and rural areas should, according to the division of responsibilities, strengthen coordination and linkage between relevant work in this field and ecological environment zoning management and control, and should fully consider this when formulating industry development and development and utilization policies and plans. Ecological environment zoning management and control requirements to reduce negative impacts on ecosystem functions and environmental quality.
Relevant departments should introduce policies that are conducive to the implementation and application of ecological environment zoning management and control, and promote the coordination and linkage of ecological environment zoning management, supervision, and law enforcement.
(16) Improve regulations and standards.
Promote the inclusion of ecological environment zoning control requirements into the formulation and revision of relevant laws and regulations.
Encourage localities with legislative power to study and formulate local regulations related to ecological environment zoning control.
The ecological environment department of the State Council shall work with the natural resources department to study and formulate requirements for the division of ecological environment zoning control units and related standards and specifications.
(17) Strengthen capacity building.
Strengthen relevant discipline construction, scientific research and talent training in the field of ecological environment zoning management and control, and accelerate the establishment of professional teams.
Improve the construction of ecological environment zoning management and control information platform.
Financial departments at all levels must comprehensively consider work goals and tasks, and implement fund guarantees in accordance with the principle of division of financial powers and expenditure responsibilities.
(18) Active publicity and guidance.
Incorporate zoning management and control of ecological environment into the education and training content of party and government leading cadres.
Strengthen publicity and interpretation, promptly summarize and promote positive examples, expose negative cases, and create a good atmosphere for widespread concern and joint participation by the whole society.