Measures will help protect wetlands

China will step up regulatory control over land reclamation in its coastal areas to better protect wetlands and the marine environment, according to a notice released by the State Council July 25.

It said new land reclamation programs will be put under strict control, and the approval of programs will be halted, unless the programs are part of a major national strategy.

For new land reclamation programs that have been approved, the reclamation should be conducted together with ecology repair measures.

Land reclamation projects that fail to obtain approval or use fraudulent methods to gain approval will be placed under investigation, and those responsible will be required to restore the coast- al areas back to their original status.

The Ministry of Natural Resources, along with the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments concerned, will conduct a comprehensive survey through satellite remote sensing on the status quo of national land reclamation before the end of this year.

Any cases found to be illegal or on hold will be reported to concerned provincial authorities, resulting in corresponding punishments.

The notice also urged measures to be stepped up to protect coastal areas demarcated by the red lines, with any illegal projects in these areas set to be wiped out, in a bid to retain protected coastal areas, natural coastlines, and the sandy coastlines.

Regulation of existing coastal natural reserves will be further strengthened, and a new string of reserves, special reserves, and wetland parks will be constructed.

A set of technological benchmarks will be developed for land reclamation, featuring assessment for ecological damage, compensation, restoration work and other items.

The monitoring and inves tigation system for wetlands will be further improved to enable real-time monitoring of land reclamation activities.