Opinions of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening Zoning Control of Ecological Environment

(March 6, 2024)

Ecological environment zoning management and control is an environmental management system that implements differentiated and precise management by regions with the goal of ensuring ecological functions and improving environmental quality. It is an important measure to improve the modernization level of ecological and environmental governance. Implementing zoning management and control of the ecological environment, strictly adhering to the red line of ecological protection, the bottom line of environmental quality, and the online utilization of resources, and scientifically guiding various development, protection and construction activities are of great significance to promoting high-quality development and building a modernization in which man and nature coexist harmoniously. In order to strengthen the zoning control of 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 the 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 Communist Party of China, implement the deployment of the National Ecological and Environmental Protection Conference, and implement the new development concept completely, accurately and comprehensively, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, coordinately promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, fully respect natural laws and regional differences, and fully implement the main functional area strategy. Fully connect land spatial planning and use control, promote high-quality development with high-level protection, create high-quality life, and strive to build a beautiful China where man and nature coexist harmoniously.

--Ecological priority and green development. Adhere to respecting nature, complying with nature, and protecting nature, maintain 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 ecological and environmental source prevention system, coordinate the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, strengthen biodiversity protection, and strengthen coordinated control of multiple pollutants and regional coordinated management.

--Precise and scientific, and controlled in accordance with the law. Focus on regional and river basin prominent ecological and environmental issues, implement precise and scientific policies, and establish zoning and classified management and control strategies from problem identification to solutions in accordance with laws and regulations.

--Clarify responsibilities and coordinate linkages. At the national level, top-level design should be done, local party committees and governments should implement main responsibilities, relevant departments should strengthen communication and coordination, establish a division of labor and collaboration working mechanism, and improve policy unity, rule consistency, and implementation synergy.

By 2025, the ecological environment zoning management and control system will be basically established, and a comprehensive, precise and scientific ecological environment zoning management and control system will be initially formed. By 2035, an ecological environment zoning management and control system with a sound system, smooth mechanism, and efficient operation will be fully established, providing strong support for the fundamental improvement of the ecological environment and the basic realization of the goal of Beautiful China.

2. Comprehensively promote zoning management and control of ecological environment

(1) Formulate an ecological environment zoning management and control plan. Deeply implement the main functional area strategy, fully implement the "National Land and Space Planning Outline (2021-2035)", and formulate an ecological environment zoning management and control plan focusing on the implementation of ecological protection red lines, environmental quality bottom lines, and on-line hard constraints on resource utilization, based on the ecological environment management and control unit. Adhere to the principles of national guidance, provincial coordination, and municipal implementation, and prepare and publish ecological environment zoning management and control plans within their administrative regions at a hierarchical level. Provincial and municipal ecological environment zoning management and control plans are organized and prepared by governments at the same level, fully connected with the "one map" system of land and spatial planning, reported to the ecological environment authorities at the next higher level for filing and released for implementation.

(2) Determine ecological environment management and control units. Based on regional characteristics such as ecological environment structure, function, and quality, through environmental assessment, and on the basis of management zoning of various ecological and environmental elements such as atmosphere, water, soil, ecology, sound, and ocean, the results of the "three zones and three lines" delineation will be implemented. Based on the ecological protection red line, the protected areas will be designated and priority ecological environment protection units will be determined; Focusing on areas with high pressure for improving ecological environment quality, high intensity of resource and energy consumption, concentrated pollutant emissions, serious ecological damage, and high environmental risks, identify areas with prominent contradictions between development and protection, and determine key ecological environment management and control units; General management and control are implemented in other areas other than the ecological environment priority protection unit and key ecological environment management and control unit.

(3) Prepare an ecological environment access list. Implement the negative list for market access, focus on solving outstanding ecological and environmental problems based on the functional positioning of ecological and environmental functions and land and space use control requirements, systematically integrate existing ecological and environmental management regulations, accurately compile differentiated ecological and environmental access lists, and propose to control pollutant emissions, prevent and control environmental risks, and improve resource and energy utilization efficiency. Implement the refined management of "one unit, one strategy" according to local conditions. Ecological environment priority protection units must strengthen ecosystem protection and functional maintenance, and key ecological environment management and control units must strengthen pollutant emission control and environmental risk prevention and control in response to prominent ecological and environmental issues. Other areas must maintain basic stability in the quality of the ecological environment. Where there is great pressure to improve the quality of the ecological environment and prominent problems and risks, more precise management and control requirements must be formulated.

(4) Strengthen the sharing of information on ecological environment zoning management and control. 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 of 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 intelligent 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 is regularly adjusted every five years in conjunction with the national economic and social development plan and land and spatial planning evaluation. If updates are really needed within 5 years, dynamic updates will be carried out in accordance with the principle of "whoever publishes updates" and on the basis of fully connecting with the national economic and social development plan and the land and space plan, and reported to the higher-level ecological environment authority for filing. If it is updated due to changes in major strategies, ecological and environmental protection goals, scientific demonstrations should be organized; legal protected areas such as ecological protection red lines, drinking water source protection areas, and nature reserves should be established, adjusted or withdrawn in accordance with laws and regulations, and if there are new regulations, they 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 and optimize the layout of major productive forces, 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 management and control of the entire Yangtze River Basin by unit, strengthen water pollution prevention and control and environmental risk prevention and control of heavy chemical industries along the river, and prevent the transfer of heavily polluting enterprises and projects 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 management and control in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, optimize the layout of energy, chemical industry and new energy industries in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, and promote the green and low-carbon cycle development of the middle and lower reaches of industries. Strengthen the application of ecological and environmental zoning management and control in the adjustment of industrial, energy and transportation structures in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, establish an ecological and environmental management and control mechanism with land-coast linkage and regional integration, and guide the green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries and rational layout of strategic emerging industries.

(7) Promote green and low-carbon development. Implement relevant national systems and policy requirements for high-energy-consuming, high-emission, and low-level project management, and guide key industries to scientifically deploy and orderly transfer to areas with large environmental capacity, strong market demand, and good market guarantee conditions. Strengthen the management of key ecological and environmental management and control units, and promote the green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading and cleaner production transformation of traditional industries such as petrochemicals, steel, and building materials. Improve the construction of environmental infrastructure in industrial parks, promote the development of industrial clusters and centralized pollution control. Connect with the ecological environment access list and guide the orderly evacuation of the functional space of traditional industries in the central Urban area 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, people's livelihood security and other projects. Implement the construction of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic bases in deserts, 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 effectiveness of ecological environment zoning management and control implementation as an important basis for optimizing environmental impact assessment management. Strengthen the guidance of ecological environment zoning control to enterprise investment, set up public access rights on the ecological environment zoning control information platform in accordance with laws and regulations, so as to 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) Maintaining the ecological security pattern. Strictly implement the red line control requirements for ecological protection. Focusing on ecological protection red lines, improve ecosystem quality and enhance ecosystem stability and service functions. Strengthen biodiversity protection and improve biodiversity protection networks. Strengthen monitoring and early warning and proactively adapt to climate change. For key areas such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ecological barrier area, the Yellow River key ecological area, the Yangtze River key ecological area, and the Northeast Forest Belt, the northern sand prevention zone, the southern hilly and mountainous zone, and the coastal zone, we will identify prominent environmental problems in units and implement differentiated management and control requirements for environmental governance.

(10) promoting the improvement of environmental quality. We will strengthen the implementation of regional management and control of the ecological environment, form a closed loop of problem identification, accurate tracing to the source, and regional policies, promote the solution of outstanding eco-environmental problems, prevent structural and local environmental risks, and free up capacity and expand space for high-quality development. We will deepen the regional 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 conservation areas, rivers and lakes and their buffer zones in the basin, and strengthen the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution. We will strengthen the regional management and control of the ecological environment in inshore waters, and promote the management of key estuaries and bays by land and sea as a whole. Considering the transmission law of atmospheric region and the sensitivity of spatial layout, the differential cooperative management and control of regional classification is strengthened. The classified management of agricultural land and the access management of construction land shall be implemented in accordance with the degree of soil pollution and relevant standards. We will strengthen the management of the acoustic environment and promote the coordination of the land layout of large-scale transportation infrastructure, industrial concentration areas and noise-sensitive buildings. We will explore the regional management and control model for the prevention and control of groundwater pollution, coordinate the above ground and underground, and formulate differential requirements for ecological environment access and pollution risk control.

(11) strengthen the coordination of eco-environmental protection policies. Give full play to the basic role of eco-environmental zoning management and control in the source prevention system, and achieve fine management of global coverage, cross-departmental coordination, and multi-factor synthesis. Strengthen the dynamic connection between eco-environmental zoning control and land spatial planning, focus on the improvement of eco-environmental quality according to the characteristics of development, protection and construction activities in different regions, and implement sub-unit and differentiated eco-environmental management. departments in charge of ecological environment and natural resources should select typical areas to carry out pilot projects, accumulate experience, improve mechanisms, and form a policy joint force. We will carry out a pilot project of regional management, control, pollution reduction and carbon reduction of the ecological environment, and study and implement differential regulation and control policies based on carbon emissions and pollutant emissions. Strengthen the coordination between the relevant policies of eco-environmental protection and the eco-environmental zoning management and control system, and incorporate the eco-environmental zoning management and control requirements into the formulation and revision of relevant eco-environmental standards and policies. All localities are encouraged to focus on industrial parks and free trade pilot areas to carry out pilot reforms of coordination and linkage between ecological environment zoning control and environmental impact assessment, pollution discharge permits, environmental monitoring, law enforcement and supervision, and to explore the construction of a full-chain eco-environmental management system.

5. Strengthen supervision and assessment

(12) Strengthen supervision and management. Relevant departments must follow the division of responsibilities, rely on relevant regulatory platforms, make full use of big data, satellite remote sensing, drones and other technical means to carry out dynamic monitoring, conduct on-site inspections of outstanding problems and hidden risks discovered, and investigate and deal with them strictly in accordance with the law. For ecological environment priority protection units with significant reduction in ecological functions, key ecological environment control units with prominent ecological and environmental problems, and other areas with significant reduction in environmental quality, strengthen supervision and law enforcement, and promote rectification within a time limit in accordance with laws and regulations. Incorporate outstanding problems in the implementation of the ecological environment zoning management and control system into central and provincial ecological and environmental protection inspections.

(13) Improve assessment and evaluation. Incorporate the implementation of ecological and environmental zoning management and control into the effectiveness assessment of the fight against pollution, etc., and the assessment results will serve as an important reference for the comprehensive assessment and evaluation of local leadership teams and relevant leading cadres, rewards and punishments, and appointment and removal. The ecological environment department of the State Council, together with relevant departments, will track and understand the implementation of the work, and the results of the work will serve as an important reference for the construction of practical innovation bases such as "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".

6. Organizational guarantees

(14) Strengthen organizational leadership. Adhere to the party's leadership over the management and control of ecological environment zoning. Local party committees and governments at all levels must strictly implement the principle of "the party and government have the same responsibilities, one post and two responsibilities" for ecological and environmental protection, improve the work promotion mechanism, regularly study the ecological and environmental zoning management and control work, and regularly promote sharing, adjustment and update, supervision and implementation matters., timely report the progress of important work, and form a good pattern of linkage between upper and lower levels, performing their duties, and joint management. Each region can formulate supporting documents based on actual conditions.

(15) strengthen the linkage of departments. The competent department of ecological environment under the State Council shall, in conjunction with relevant departments, formulate and improve relevant policies on the zoning management and control of the ecological environment. The development and reform departments should actively promote the full convergence of the achievements of regional management and control of the ecological environment with the relevant plans for national economic and social development and the compilation of regional planning. The department in charge of natural resources should rely on the "one map" system of land and spatial planning, share data such as the red line of ecological protection, strengthen the connection between the ecological environment zoning management and control plan and land space planning, and jointly do a good job in related research and pilot projects. Water administrative departments are responsible for water resources management, water shoreline management and other related work, implement differential management of water resources, reasonably control the scale of development and utilization of water resources, and link with regional management and control of ecological environment. The competent departments of forestry and grassland should strengthen the coordination and linkage between the management of all kinds of nature reserves and the regional management and control of the ecological environment. The relevant competent departments of industry and informatization, urban and rural housing construction, transportation, agriculture and rural areas should, in accordance with the division of duties, strengthen the coordination and linkage between the relevant work in this field and the zoning management and control of the ecological environment, when formulating policies and plans for industrial development, development and utilization, we should fully consider the requirements of zoning management and control of the ecological environment, so as to reduce the negative impact on ecosystem function and environmental quality. The relevant departments should issue policies conducive to the implementation and application of eco-environmental zoning management and control, and promote the coordination and linkage of eco-environmental zoning control, supervision and law enforcement.

(16) Improve laws and regulations and standards. Promote the inclusion of ecological environment zoning control requirements into the formulation and revision of relevant laws and regulations. Encourage local governments 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 the requirements for the division of ecological environment zoning control units and relevant standards and specifications.

(17) Strengthen capacity building. Strengthen the construction of relevant disciplines, 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 platforms. Financial departments at all levels must comprehensively consider work goals and tasks, and implement financial guarantees in accordance with the principle of dividing financial powers and expenditure responsibilities.

(18) Actively publicize and guide. Incorporate ecological environment zoning management and control into the education and training content of party and government leading cadres. Strengthen publicity and interpretation, promptly summarize and promote positive models, expose negative cases, and create a good atmosphere for widespread attention and joint participation in the whole society.