National ecological civilization pilot zone

The central authorities recently approved and published the implementation plans for national ecological civilization pilot zones in Jiangxi and Guizhou provinces.

In August last year, the central authorities approved a similar plan for a national ecological civilization pilot zone in Fujian province.

According to the plans, the three provinces will explore new practices and reforms to preserve the ecology and protect the environment, so as to form a template that can be implemented elsewhere in the country.

The three provinces will carry out 66 reforms in total, among which 38 have been assigned by the central authorities, and 28 are proposed by the provincial governments and approved by the central authorities.

For instance, Fujian will strengthen its environmental and natural resources judicial guarantee mechanism and pilot a system for assigning values to ecological systems.

Jiangxi will establish an ecological compensation mechanism, and Guizhou will make use of big data for ecological preservation, and set up an international cooperation mechanism for ecological preservation.

Encouraging local governments to submit their own reform plans, instead of only giving them a to-do list, is expected to spur them to take the initiative to blaze a trail in the direction that is most pertinent to their practical needs.

Also, the central authorities welcome social organizations, enterprises and individual citizens to take part in the projects in the three provinces.