Our column in this issue continues to focus on the chapter “Speeding up Reform of the System for Developing an Ecological Civilization, and Building a Beautiful China” of the report delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee at the 19th CPC National Congress, zooming in on the following two aspects:
加大生态系统保护力度
实施重要生态系统保护和修复重大工程，优化生态安全屏障体系，构建生态廊道和生物多样性保护网络，提升生态系统质量和稳定性。完成生态保护红线、永久基本农田、城镇开发边界三条控制线划定工作。开展国土绿化行动，推进荒漠化、石漠化、水土流失综合治理，强化湿地保护和恢复，加强地质灾害防治。完善天然林保护制度，扩大退耕还林还草。严格保护耕地，扩大轮作休耕试点，健全耕地草原森林河流湖泊休养生息制度，建立市场化、多元化生态补偿机制。
Intensifying the Protection of Ecosystems
We will carry out major projects to protect and restore key ecosystems, improve the system of shields for ecological security, and develop ecological corridors and biodiversity protection networks, so as to strengthen the quality and stability of our ecosystems. We will complete work on drawing redlines for protecting the ecosystems, designating permanent basic cropland, and delineating boundaries for urban development.
We will promote afforestation, take comprehensive steps to control desertification, stony deserts, and soil erosion, strengthen wetland conservation and restoration, and better prevent and control geological disasters. We will improve the system for protecting natural forests, and turn more marginal farmland into forests and grasslands. We will rigorously protect farmland and expand trials in crop rotation and keeping land fallow. We will improve systems for regeneration of croplands, grasslands, forests, rivers, and lakes, and set up diversified market-based mechanisms for ecological compensation.
改革生态环境监管体制
加强对生态文明建设的总体设计和组织领导，设立国有自然资源资产管理和自然生态监管机构，完善生态环境管理制度，统一行使全民所有自然资源资产所有者职责，统一行使所有国土空间用途管制和生态保护修复职责，统一行使监管城乡各类污染排放和行政执法职责。构建国土空间开发保护制度，完善主体功能区配套政策，建立以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系。坚决制止和惩处破坏生态环境行为。
Reforming the Environmental Regulation System
We will strengthen overall planning, organization, and leadership for building an ecological civilization. We will establish regulatory agencies to manage state-owned natural resource assets and monitor natural ecosystems, and improve environmental management systems. These agencies will, in a unified way, perform the duties of the owner of public-owned natural resource assets, the duties of regulating the use of all territorial space and protecting and restoring ecosystems, and the duties of monitoring the discharge of all pollutants in urban and rural areas and conducting administrative law enforcement.
We will establish systems for developing and protecting territorial space, improve supporting policies on functional zones, and develop a nature reserves system composed mainly of national parks. We will take tough steps to stop and punish all activities that damage the environment.
习近平总书记在报告中指出，生态文明建设功在当代、利在千秋。我们要牢固树立社会主义生态文明观，推动形成人与自然和谐发展现代化建设新格局，为保护生态环境做出我们这代人的努力！
General Secretary Xi pointed out in the report, “What we are doing today to build an ecological civilization will benefit generations to come. We should have a strong commitment to socialist ecological civilization and work to develop a new model of modernization with humans developing in harmony with nature.” He called on the whole Party to do the generation’s share to protect the environment.
