Strictest Eco-Protection Policy in China: China approves no-development zones in 15 regions

World
Europe

China has approved plans by 15 provinces and regions to draw up "red lines" that will put large swathes of its territory off-limits to economic development. The program was announced on Monday. It is dubbed the strictest environmental protection policy ever.

610 thousand square kilometers of land in China will become free of industrial development.

The "ecological protection red line" scheme was first devised in 2011, due to fear that decades of "irrational development" had over consumed China's environment.

It is designed to keep pollution away from wetlands, forests, national parks and protected nature zones.

Last year, the government ordered all provinces and regions to implement such systems by the end of 2020.

GAO JIXI, DIRECTOR MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION "The 15 schemes already approved include Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the remote desert region of Ningxia in the northwest and 11 other provinces along the Yangtze River."

China's environment ministry said last week that the country would eventually aim to protect as much as 25 percent of the country's territory using the "red line" scheme. The ministry promised that the area in the red line zone will never be removed.

Analysts say the plan could have come sooner, as China is now struggling to bring a huge amount of contaminated farmland back into life. That makes it difficult for China to keep agricultural output at maximum while curbing excessive pesticide and fertilizer use and overgrazing.

That is a critical situation. China has to feed a fifth of the world's population using just 7 percent of global farmland, much of which is barren or suffering from pollution.

The country is also in the middle of a reforestation campaign and aims to plant an area the size of Ireland with trees this year.