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Ecological red lines: from words to action

Liu Qin

23.03.201

The buzzword has been given new life and is finally crossing from idea into policy, writes Liu Qin

Chemical pollution on the Yangtze. Establishing strict baselines for environmental protection will be key to protecting the Yangtze Basin (Image: Lu Guang / Greenpeace)

China’s annual Lianghui rarely disappoints as a source of new buzzwords. But this year, the meeting of the National People’s Congress and the National People’s Political Consultative Conference instead saw the revival of one that’s been around for a few years.

At a press conference with journalists on March 9, Chen Jining, Minister for Environmental Protection, fell back on a familiar term, the “ecological red line”, when responding to a question about environmental degradation on the Yangtze. Chen was clear that strict baselines for environmental protection would be established in the Yangtze Basin, which is one of China’s most densely populated and industrialised regions.

Although the term has been heard before, it is especially significant this year because of an accompanying concept called “ecological space”. In late February, Chen published an article that worked through his ideas around environmental protection. He described China’s development as having “artificially divided” the natural environment by economic function.

He went on to say that if China is to develop sustainably then it will require an “ecological space” that is unrestricted by economic activity. Chen goes on to rank it alongside “urban space” and “agricultural space” as one of three key spaces in need of tailored management. He said that ecological red lines are “the most important, the most key part of that space, needing…implementation of the strictest protection and utilisation controls.”

Deputy Minister Huang Runqiu has pointed out that the Chinese government discussed ecological red lines as far back as 2011, and as a measure of success in implementing ecological civilisation targets. But the concept only seemed to genuinely influence policy when Chen Jining took over the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2015.

In early February the Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly published a key document, Opinions on Defining and Protecting Ecological Redlines. This made clear that local Party committees and governments are responsible for the protection of ecological red lines and set a timetable for setting them.

Specifically, by the end of 2017, provinces and municipalities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze Economic Belt will have set red lines, with other localities to follow by the end of 2018. By 2020 the process will have been completed.

By the end of 2017 provincial governments in the Yangtze Economic Belt will have set their ecological red lines. Image: http://www.gov.cn

Many questions remain though. What power will “red lines” have? Why are there different timings? And what challenges lie ahead? To help answer these questions chinadialogue spoke to environmental protection expert Peng Yingdeng, a researcher at the National Centre for Urban Pollution Control Technology. Peng was formerly head of the Peking University Atmospheric Pollution Institute, and is also a member of the MEP’s panel of environmental impact assessment experts.

chinadialogue (CD): We’ve seen red lines before for arable land and forestry. What’s the difference between those and the ecological red lines being talked about now?

Peng Yingdeng (PYD): China’s territory is generally classed as one of three types: production spaces, living spaces, or ecological spaces. Areas used for production – agriculture, factories, industrial zones – are classed as production spaces. Cities and residential areas are living spaces. Ecological spaces are generally nature reserves, or reserves protecting sources of water – areas with an ecological function. The arable land red line was set within the agricultural [production] space. The ecological red lines are defined within the ecological space.

Previously the forestry authorities had forestry red lines, the water authorities had red lines for protection of water sources, the marine authorities had their own red lines. The ecological red lines will bring all these together, ending inter-departmental conflict. These red lines will be set and implemented by government, rather than individual departments. Note that the ‘Opinions on Defining and Protecting Ecological Redlines’ was issued jointly by the Party Central Committee and the State Council – not the Ministry for Environmental Protection. Any disagreements between departments will now be resolved within the red line system.

CD: What effect will the red lines have?

PYD: It’s like drawing a border and saying no development is permitted within that border. The environmental authorities will set ecological red lines and promote the “three lines, one list” approach. The three lines are ecological red lines, minimum environmental quality baselines, and upper resource usage limits; the list is a blacklist of environmentally-damaging activities that are not permitted. Specifically there’ll be rules about where you can develop, where you can’t develop, and how much development is permitted.

CD: Why will ecological red lines in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze Economic Belt be set earlier?

PYD: What these two [areas] have in common is that they are China’s most important in terms of economic, societal, political, and geographical location, and also most affected by pollution. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region faces grave air pollution challenges, while the Yangtze Economic Belt suffers mainly from water pollution.

There are two reasons there’s an urgent need to protect the Yangtze: grave ecological damage and grave water pollution. Many provinces along the river have seen reduced ‘ecological baseflow’ – the amount of water needed to flow through a river to keep the ecosystem functioning. Many rivers in the Yangtze system no longer have the flow to maintain basic ecological functions. For example, Poyang Lake in Jiangxi and Dongting Lake in Hunan are shrinking and the ecological functions they provide are reduced.

There are many chemical factories and industrial zones built along the rivers, with waste water discharged into the Yangtze where it damages water quality. Forty three percent of the country’s waste water, 37% of its chemical-oxygen demand and 43% of its nitrates are released here, and there are serious drinking water issues.

The water environment in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area is even worse, with many rivers dried up for two thirds of the year, with no ‘ecological baseflow’ at all, as shown by the higher frequency of dark and foul bodies of water than in the south. The implementation of ecological red lines will improve protection outcomes in the north.

CD: We’ve heard about setting ecological red lines for some years, but the outcomes haven’t been ideal. Why?

PYD: One issue was mentioned already: different departments were setting their own red lines, and those conflicted. Also, it’s harder for some local governments to implement these due to differing stages of development. So this time, implementation will be staggered; more developed areas with graver ecological issues, such as the two regions discussed, will take the lead.

CD: What restrictions on industrial development will result from the setting of ecological redlines in the Yangtze Economic Belt?

PYD: It will be forbidden to build new heavy and chemical industry zones within a kilometre of the Yangtze and major tributaries, and those already present will have to be relocated. All chemical plants will have to be situated within a chemical industry zone, under the zone’s management, as this is where the [supporting] infrastructure is best. There will be a strict ban on the building of new petrochemical or coal-chemical plants on the river’s upper and middle reaches.

CD: How hard will it be to implement this?

PYD: It’ll be a bit easier for richer places such as Shanghai and Jiangsu. Less developed areas such as Yunnan and Guizhou will find it harder, particularly where there are gaps in regulatory coverage.

There are still attempts in Yunnan to build new chemical plants away from main rivers and tributaries, especially at the county level. So there’s still a lot of pressure on the Ministry for Environmental Protection. If ecological redlines aren’t set those projects may go ahead.

Environmental impact assessment procedures prior to construction have already been simplified. If there isn’t effective oversight during and after construction then there will be a risk of environmental degradation regardless of whether or not redlines have been set.

courtesy:chinadialogue

High price of rhino horn leaves bloody trail across the globe

Damian Carrington

24.03.2017

The killing of a rhino in a Paris zoo marks a shocking development in this ruthless global trade, writes Damian Carrington

Trade in rhino horn is completely illegal but demand from Vietnam and China fuels poaching and smuggling, putting the rhinos at risk of extinction (Image: Max Pixel)

On the black market it is reputedly worth more than its weight in gold or cocaine, and earlier this month the lure of rhino horn brought the bloody business of poaching to a zoo near Paris. There, in the dead of night, criminals broke in, shot a white rhino called Vince three times in the head and then hacked off its eight-inch horn with a chainsaw.

The attack marks a shocking new development in a crisis that sees more than three rhinos killed every day in their southern African homelands. Trade in rhino horn is completely illegal but demand from Vietnam and China fuels poaching and smuggling, putting the rhinos at risk of extinction.

Rhino horn is made of keratin – the same material as human fingernails – but an urban myth about a senior Vietnamese figure being cured of cancer pushed up demand in recent years and as its price rose, it has become a status symbol and hangover tonic. Longer-standing uses such as a supposed fever treatment in traditional Chinese medicine and as ornamental carvings have also driven up prices.

With the prices high and, until recently, the penalties very low, international organised crime networks mobilised to supply the illegal trade – wildlife trafficking is a multi-billion dollar enterprise only surpassed by the smuggling of drugs, arms and people.

The zoo raid, and thefts from museums across Europe in recent years, reveal how the criminals have been keeping ahead of authorities. “The criminal networks involved have shown themselves to be far more innovative and utterly ruthless,” said Julian Rademeyer, an expert on rhino horn at Traffic, the leading wildlife trade monitoring organisation. “They are often outthinking law enforcement and government regulations, finding new loopholes to exploit.”

The criminals have even shown a brazen marketing flair: the idea that powdered rhino horn is an aphrodisiac began as a western myth, said Rademeyer, but the syndicates latched on to it and now sell wine laced with rhino horn as aphrodisiacs in Vietnam.

Rademeyer and all the key wildlife trade groups decline to detail the current price of rhino horn, for fear of encouraging more crime. But it is public knowledge that the horn peaked in price at about US$65,000 a kilogram in 2012. It is thought to have fallen significantly since then, though it remains many times more valuable than elephant ivory.

There has been a crackdown on poaching in South Africa, home to about 70% of all rhinos, but killings have spiked in Namibia and Zimbabwe as poachers seek easier targets.

“There have been warnings for the last four to five years that zoos need to tighten up security,” Rademeyer said. Police are visiting every zoo and wildlife park in the UK that houses rhinos – 111 in total – to provide security advice.

Rademeyer said there have been hundreds of rhino horn thefts across Europe in recent years. In 2016, seven men received lengthy jail sentences in the UK over a series of museum raids which targeted horns and jade artefacts estimated to be worth over £50m.

However, the epicentre of the rhino crisis remains in southern Africa, where poor young men are willing to risk their lives by poaching. They receive just a tiny fraction of the horns’ ultimate value, but even a few hundred dollars is a huge sum in their communities.

Hundreds of poachers have been killed in the last seven years and a much smaller but significant number of rangers, soldiers and policemen have also died. “People have limited sympathy for poachers but I think [their poverty] is a reality that has to be grappled with,” said Rademeyer.

“Shooting and jailing the poachers is not a long term solution,” he said. “They are very easy [for the crime syndicates] to find and very easy to exploit. Whether they get killed or arrested means very little to the syndicates, and the same applies to the couriers. The kingpins who are making the big money are getting away with it.”

Rademeyer said police cooperation is crucial to tackling the global rhino horn trade: “You are dealing with very sophisticated transnational organised crime syndicates in many cases and yet your law enforcement is hampered by international borders. Police tend to police their own backyard.” He says campaigns in Asia to stigmatise rhino horn use are important too, and have helped cut the shark fin trade.

The Paris poaching also raises the controversial question of whether a legalised trade in rhino horn, harvested sustainably from wild or farmed animals, could destroy the black market. Many nations and organisations strongly oppose the idea, saying it would simply allow illegal horns to be laundered with fake permits, but South Africa backs the idea.

Duan Biggs, a researcher at Griffith University in Australia, said: “The issue is complex, but a well-managed and enforced legal trade that is structured to fund rhino protection and deliver community benefits is likely to work better than the status quo.” He accepts some people might find it unethical, but said: “I think that poaching a rhino in a zoo or in the wild is even more morally repugnant than a well-regulated legal trade.”

However, a legalised rhino horn trade is unlikely any time soon. Swaziland made such a proposal at an international wildlife trade summit in Johannesburg in September and it was soundly defeated.

Rademeyer remains cautiously optimistic that the perilous decline of the world’s rhino can be reversed, pointing to their comeback from the brink of extinction in the 1950s. “We have beaten this before,” he said.

This article was originally published on the Guardian.

courtesy:chinadialogue

Brazil beef scandal highlights dangers of industrial livestock farming

27.03.2017

Chinese demand is driving beef production in Brazil but producers have been found selling contaminated meat

President Michel Temer with Chinese ambassador Li Jinzhang. Livestock production is expected to increase 70% by 2050 (Image: Palácio do Planalto)

The revelation that top Brazilian meat producers bribed food safety inspectors to obtain certificates for rotten meat is the last thing President Michel Temer needs on his plate.

Brazil’s economy is already reeling from the crash in global commodity prices and low investor confidence as the unprecedented Lava Jato corruption scandal taints politicians of all stripes. Now the country’s highly prized beef exports look set to collapse after it emerged companies including JBS and BRF, the world’s largest beef and poultry producers, respectively, committed foul play. Some even tried to pass off edible meat flecked with acid in order to mask its rotting stench.

Major buyers the EU, Korea and China have suspended Brazilian beef imports in the wake of the scandal, the result of an undercover sting called “Operation Weak Flesh”. China is the top destination for Brazilian beef, accounting for a third of all exports. The ban comes scarcely two years after the countries re-established the US$12 billion trade in 2015 following a previous food safety scare.

Blairo Maggi, Brazil’s agriculture minister is fighting to save the reputation of the sector, which despite links with deforestation and comparatively low job creation, enjoys something of a high standing among most Brazilians: “The investigation doesn’t cast doubt over the quality of Brazilian meat, nor the quality of its sanitary system,” said Maggi, adding that it only raised questions about the character of some working in the industry. The minister, himself controller of Brazil’s largest soybean producer Amaggi, added that officials had identified and recalled containers carrying affected meat.

At the same press conference, Maggi announced the Brazilian Institute for Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA) had been alerted to a further 14 slaughterhouses that bought 58,000 heads of cattle reared on illegally deforested land. Such purchases are prohibited under Brazilian law.

Maggi claimed the seizure demonstrates that their policies of controlling “illegal” Amazonian deforestation are effective and that Brazil, which he said uses 8% of land for agriculture, is a champion of sustainability. Yet growing global meat consumption and the move towards more intensive farming methods also impacts the environment, a problem many of those profiting from the sector are trying to suppress.

Cattle footprint

Livestock production accounts for the majority of agricultural land use around the world and contributes around 14.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Brazil, it is estimated cattle ranching is responsible for half the country’s GHG emissions. Some 80% of deforestation was associated with demand for animal pasture between 1990-2005, according to a report by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) published last year.

On top of this, meat and dairy production uses around 8% of the total water that humans use. Most goes towards the cultivation of feed crops such as soya. So says a recent publication by the Global Forest Coalition entitled What’s at Steak.

Driven largely by demand for livestock from China’s growing middle class, consumption is expected to increase 70% by 2050. This spike in demand is accompanied by a trend towards more intensive farming methods. Millions of animals are now raised in cramped spaces known as Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFOs), often in unsanitary conditions. CAFOs are also highly polluting.

“We have to return to traditional farming methods, restricting it to “natural” environments and allowing [cattle] to feed on pastures and grasslands that can support them trampling on it,” said Miguel Lovera of the Global Forest Coalition. Along with the environmental footprint of intensive farming, competition among producers is ‘tremendous’ Lovera says.

With consumers and producers separated by long distances, it is easier for the latter to take advantage of loopholes in regulations, or break the rules in search of higher profits, according to Wanqing Zhou, an associate at environment think tank Brighter Green.

“Exporting meat to the other side of the world is a challenge,” says Zhou. “Meat products, with their perishable nature, require being consumed quickly when they are still fresh, or being preserved through preservatives or freezing, both of which entail costs.”

Lovera says that rather than solve the problem of refrigerating products along the supply chain, producers try to cover it up in order to protect their market share.

The Brazil meat scandal hasn’t received much attention from big Chinese media outlets but smaller organisations and groups that are focused on healthy living and which operate on social media platforms such as WeChat have acknowledged it.

According to Zhou, the most effective way to curb the environmental impacts of meat consumption is to significantly reduce demand: “It’s hoped that some [consumers] will take it a step further and rethink the over-consumption of meat and the safety risks in the intensive animal farming system.”

No debate

The “weak flesh” scandal may have prompted safety concerns in China and in Brazil, but there is minimal space for public debate about the climate impacts of the beef trade in South America’s largest country. One of the reasons for this is the lack of critical coverage in national media, says Myanna Lahsen, a researcher at Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE).

“They maintain a virtual taboo on the topic,” says Lahsen, who adds that climate change is framed as an energy problem in Brazil.

Brazil’s powerful agriculture industry, which is represented in the national parliament by the sizeable “ruralista” lobby group, presents itself as vital for food security. Coupled with the high cultural value the public attaches to meat, environmental NGOs and scientists are reluctant to tackle the topic. At best, they express support for more efficient and intensified production, arguing that it should be limited to already degraded land.

These analyses fail to grasp that a key driver behind the deforestation process is financial speculation on land and its assumption that the ecosystems they support have no value, Lahsen says. Land increases in sale value if it is deforested and prepared for production, speculators assume.

However, for every one dollar in private profit generated by the agriculture sector, the pubic is hit with 20 in costs arising from pollution and land degradation, according to a report by research organisation TRUCOST.

Yet still the Brazilian media focuses mainly on agribusiness’ 25% contribution to GDP and presents those who criticise it as against the national interest. This is despite the relatively few jobs it creates given the territorial extension it requires, Lahsen argues.

“There is no public debate about whether the negative impacts are necessary, who exactly benefits from the meat and soy emphasis, and alternative development options that are sustainable and more equitable,” Lahsen says.

courtesy:chinadialogue

A tale of five lakes

22.03.2017

To mark World Water Day we take a look at some of China’s most culturally important but environmentally threatened lakes

Take a trip around some of China's most interesting lakes, from the mysterious disappearance of Lop Nur to the remarkable recovery of Qinghai Lake (Image: NASA)

China’s rivers, lakes and seas are an important part of the country’s cultural geography, with the phrase “five lakes, four seas” meaning something akin to “from all over the country”.

But most of the country's lakes are in a state of crisis. China has a much smaller freshwater resource by population than many other nations, and those resources are both shrinking and threatened by pollution. Not only is China the world’s largest user of fertilizers, its water-polluting industries such as textiles and paper-making are huge, and both agriculture and industry have enormous water footprints.

Here, we include a couple of China’s traditional “five lakes” in the central and eastern parts of the country, but also include others that may not have the same cultural importance but which remain valuable ecosystems.

Click image above to explore China's lakes

Poyang Lake – to dam or not to dam

Despite being known as China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang has no fixed size. The lake is huge, shallow and connected to the Yangtze, which means that every year its size fluctuates in line with the height of the river, shifting wildly from between 3,000 to only 100 square kilometres. For this reason it is known for becoming a wide expanse of clear water when in flood but little more than a river in the dry season.

But though Poyang shrinks during the dry season, it still provides a crucial habitat for migrating birds, which arrive here in autumn from Siberia to rest over the winter.

Yet for a decade now, Poyang has been experiencing earlier and longer dry seasons, and unusually low water levels. In extreme cases the locals have seen water supplies cut off entirely. Climate change is one reason, but the role of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s biggest hydropower project, has also come in for scrutiny.

The office in charge of the lake’s water management system plans to build a barrier between the Yangtze and Poyang Lake to address the problem. But opponents say this will block migrating fish, and higher water levels will cause problems for the birds – resulting in ecological disaster. There is also a question over whether or not retaining more water in the lake will affect water security for cities downstream. The debate looks set to continue.

Qinghai Lake – back from rock bottom

Qinghai Lake is a saltwater lake situated in the north-east of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and is China’s largest. But unlike other lakes that are shrinking, Qinghai seems to be recovering, with water levels increasing in recent years.

The provincial authorities have monitored the lake area since 1974, finding that in 2005 it had shrunk by 253 square kilometres, to 5.67% of its size in 1974. chinadialogue expressed concern about the risk to the lake a decade ago. But since 2005 the lake has, unexpectedly, been recovering. By 2016 it was almost back to its 1974 size, the largest recorded.

In February 2017 a provincial survey found the environment of the Qinghai Lake basin was well protected. The management bureau for the Qinghai Lake National Nature Reserve says that alongside interventions, such as returning farmland to forests and pastures and restoration of vegetation, another important factor is increased precipitation and glacier melt resulting from climate change. It’s ironic that while changing weather patterns are threatening low-lying islands and coastal areas, China’s largest lake is actually benefiting.

Ulunsuhai Nur

Situated in Inner Mongolia, Ulunsuhai Nur is home to 200 types of bird and is the highest wetland at this latitude. Strictly speaking, the lake is manmade, and was formed by efforts to redirect water from the Yellow River. Today, 80% of its water is directed through agricultural irrigation systems nearby, with the rest coming from rainfall.

From 1965 to 1975 local people constructed a modern drainage system between the Yellow River, farmland and Ulunsuhai Nur, to ensure water from irrigation would flow quickly into the lake where vegetation and microorganisms would break down fertilizer run-off. The “purified” water is then returned to the Yellow River.

That system of irrigation and drainage made the plains around Ulunsuhai Nur one of northern China’s most important agricultural regions, while the recovery of water from agriculture made the lake – which should be arid – a paradise for birds and a tourist hot spot.

But the system is today on the brink of failure. Experts point out that fertilizer use in China has increased 55-fold in 40 years, and Ulunsuhai Nur can no longer cope. For about ten years the lake has seen algal blooms during some summers resulting from eutrophication. This has worsened the water quality and affected the entire ecosystem, from birds to fish.

Lop Nur – the Sea of Death

Look down from the air and you can see the ear-like shape of Lop Nur, once a large lake but now dried up. In the 1920s it was estimated to be 3,000 square kilometres in size – twice as large as Beijing today. In 1959, it was still possible to sail a boat on it. It’s unclear when the lake dried up exactly, but the region is incredibly arid and once the rivers stopped flowing, Lop Nur, which was only three or four metres deep, may have dried up in a matter of years.

The lake has always had a legendary quality. Sven Anders Hedin, a Swedish explorer in the early 20th century, “discovered” it while travelling through the desert. Archaeologists later excavated relics and determined that it would have been an important oasis and stop on the Silk Road. It’s also claimed the lives of a number of explorers, including two famous Chinese adventurers, Peng Jiamu and Yu Chunshun who went missing around Lop Nur in 1980 and 1996.

Lop Nur is now just another expanse of desert. In summer it reaches extreme temperatures and not a bird is to be seen in the sky. It is now known as the Sea of Death.

Lake Tai – the 100 billion yuan clean-up

The beauty of Lake Tai has long been praised in Chinese poems and songs. But by 2007 that beauty was all but gone. An algal bloom, poor water quality and a foul smell left residents of nearby Wuxi without clean drinking water for a week, resulting in widespread media coverage and panic-buying of bottled water.

Lake Tai lies between Jiangsu and Zhejiang, two of China’s most developed provinces. The Lake Tai basin covers 0.4% of China’s land mass, yet accounts for 8% of its GDP. The area is China’s most urbanised – and produces nine times more pollutants per unit of area than the national average. The pollutants pouring into the lake resulted in eutrophication, and then algal blooms.

The costs to local government were huge. As of 2014, government at all levels had spent a total of 96 billion yuan (US$14 billion) cleaning the lake, with another 116.4 billion (US$17 billion) to come.

But the approach to cleaning up the lake has also established a new model in China for similar problems elsewhere, making it possible to trade the right to release waste water. Jiangsu was also one of the first provinces to set up an environmental credit rating system for businesses.

Water quality has improved in recent years, but the risk of algal blooms remains.

courtesy: chinadialogue

Ecological red lines: from words to action

Liu Qin

23.03.2017

The buzzword has been given new life and is finally crossing from idea into policy, writes Liu Qin

China’s annual Lianghui rarely disappoints as a source of new buzzwords. But this year, the meeting of the National People’s Congress and the National People’s Political Consultative Conference instead saw the revival of one that’s been around for a few years.

At a press conference with journalists on March 9, Chen Jining, Minister for Environmental Protection, fell back on a familiar term, the “ecological red line”, when responding to a question about environmental degradation on the Yangtze. Chen was clear that strict baselines for environmental protection would be established in the Yangtze Basin, which is one of China’s most densely populated and industrialised regions.

Although the term has been heard before, it is especially significant this year because of an accompanying concept called “ecological space”. In late February, Chen published an article that worked through his ideas around environmental protection. He described China’s development as having “artificially divided” the natural environment by economic function.

He went on to say that if China is to develop sustainably then it will require an “ecological space” that is unrestricted by economic activity. Chen goes on to rank it alongside “urban space” and “agricultural space” as one of three key spaces in need of tailored management. He said that ecological red lines are “the most important, the most key part of that space, needing…implementation of the strictest protection and utilisation controls.”

Deputy Minister Huang Runqiu has pointed out that the Chinese government discussed ecological red lines as far back as 2011, and as a measure of success in implementing ecological civilisation targets. But the concept only seemed to genuinely influence policy when Chen Jining took over the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2015.

In early February the Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly published a key document, Opinions on Defining and Protecting Ecological Redlines. This made clear that local Party committees and governments are responsible for the protection of ecological red lines and set a timetable for setting them.

Specifically, by the end of 2017, provinces and municipalities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze Economic Belt will have set red lines, with other localities to follow by the end of 2018. By 2020 the process will have been completed.

By the end of 2017 provincial governments in the Yangtze Economic Belt will have set their ecological red lines. Image: http://www.gov.cn

Many questions remain though. What power will “red lines” have? Why are there different timings? And what challenges lie ahead? To help answer these questions chinadialogue spoke to environmental protection expert Peng Yingdeng, a researcher at the National Centre for Urban Pollution Control Technology. Peng was formerly head of the Peking University Atmospheric Pollution Institute, and is also a member of the MEP’s panel of environmental impact assessment experts.

chinadialogue (CD): We’ve seen red lines before for arable land and forestry. What’s the difference between those and the ecological red lines being talked about now?

Peng Yingdeng (PYD): China’s territory is generally classed as one of three types: production spaces, living spaces, or ecological spaces. Areas used for production – agriculture, factories, industrial zones – are classed as production spaces. Cities and residential areas are living spaces. Ecological spaces are generally nature reserves, or reserves protecting sources of water – areas with an ecological function. The arable land red line was set within the agricultural [production] space. The ecological red lines are defined within the ecological space.

Previously the forestry authorities had forestry red lines, the water authorities had red lines for protection of water sources, the marine authorities had their own red lines. The ecological red lines will bring all these together, ending inter-departmental conflict. These red lines will be set and implemented by government, rather than individual departments. Note that the ‘Opinions on Defining and Protecting Ecological Redlines’ was issued jointly by the Party Central Committee and the State Council – not the Ministry for Environmental Protection. Any disagreements between departments will now be resolved within the red line system.

CD: What effect will the red lines have?

PYD: It’s like drawing a border and saying no development is permitted within that border. The environmental authorities will set ecological red lines and promote the “three lines, one list” approach. The three lines are ecological red lines, minimum environmental quality baselines, and upper resource usage limits; the list is a blacklist of environmentally-damaging activities that are not permitted. Specifically there’ll be rules about where you can develop, where you can’t develop, and how much development is permitted.

CD: Why will ecological red lines in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze Economic Belt be set earlier?

PYD: What these two [areas] have in common is that they are China’s most important in terms of economic, societal, political, and geographical location, and also most affected by pollution. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region faces grave air pollution challenges, while the Yangtze Economic Belt suffers mainly from water pollution.

There are two reasons there’s an urgent need to protect the Yangtze: grave ecological damage and grave water pollution. Many provinces along the river have seen reduced ‘ecological baseflow’ – the amount of water needed to flow through a river to keep the ecosystem functioning. Many rivers in the Yangtze system no longer have the flow to maintain basic ecological functions. For example, Poyang Lake in Jiangxi and Dongting Lake in Hunan are shrinking and the ecological functions they provide are reduced.

There are many chemical factories and industrial zones built along the rivers, with waste water discharged into the Yangtze where it damages water quality. Forty three percent of the country’s waste water, 37% of its chemical-oxygen demand and 43% of its nitrates are released here, and there are serious drinking water issues.

The water environment in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area is even worse, with many rivers dried up for two thirds of the year, with no ‘ecological baseflow’ at all, as shown by the higher frequency of dark and foul bodies of water than in the south. The implementation of ecological red lines will improve protection outcomes in the north.

CD: We’ve heard about setting ecological red lines for some years, but the outcomes haven’t been ideal. Why?

PYD: One issue was mentioned already: different departments were setting their own red lines, and those conflicted. Also, it’s harder for some local governments to implement these due to differing stages of development. So this time, implementation will be staggered; more developed areas with graver ecological issues, such as the two regions discussed, will take the lead.

CD: What restrictions on industrial development will result from the setting of ecological redlines in the Yangtze Economic Belt?

PYD: It will be forbidden to build new heavy and chemical industry zones within a kilometre of the Yangtze and major tributaries, and those already present will have to be relocated. All chemical plants will have to be situated within a chemical industry zone, under the zone’s management, as this is where the [supporting] infrastructure is best. There will be a strict ban on the building of new petrochemical or coal-chemical plants on the river’s upper and middle reaches.

CD: How hard will it be to implement this?

PYD: It’ll be a bit easier for richer places such as Shanghai and Jiangsu. Less developed areas such as Yunnan and Guizhou will find it harder, particularly where there are gaps in regulatory coverage.

There are still attempts in Yunnan to build new chemical plants away from main rivers and tributaries, especially at the county level. So there’s still a lot of pressure on the Ministry for Environmental Protection. If ecological redlines aren’t set those projects may go ahead.

Environmental impact assessment procedures prior to construction have already been simplified. If there isn’t effective oversight during and after construction then there will be a risk of environmental degradation regardless of whether or not redlines have been set.

Dialoguepk

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