Overview 

The Chinese government has been engaged in work to protect the national environment since the country's first national law on environmental protection in 1989, the Environmental Protection Law, administered by the State Environmental Protection Administration. After the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, China was one of the first countries to formulate and carry out a strategy of sustainable development. In 1993, the Environmental Resources Committee of the National People's Congress was set up. So far, the NPC and State Council have promulgated eight laws for environmental protection, 14 laws for management of natural resources and 34 regulations on environmental protection. Environmental protection authorities have publicized over 90 national environmental protection regulations and more than 1,020 local ones.
        Responding to stresses on natural resources caused by fast economic growth, development and urbanization, the state at the turn of the 21st Century responded with a "green strategy" that includes developing a revolving economy, increasing resource-use efficiency; developing clean production, reducing pollution cost in the process of production; developing green consumption, reducing ecological damage by the process of consumption; developing new energy resources, reforming the mode of production, moving toward ecological industrial civilization, and creating a balanced ecological environment. The Cleaner Production Promotion Law, which went into effect on January 1, 2003 and the Environment Impact Assessment Law, which went into effect on September 1, 2003, provide guarantees to implement the strategy. The Cleaner Production Promotion Law requires full control over all the production links — from production design, choice of energy resources and raw materials, technology, equipment maintenance, to waste recycling — so as to reduce pollution and promote recycling of resources. 
        The Environment Impact Assessment Law requires relevant departments of the State Council, local governments and relevant authorities of cities with districts and above to assess the impact on the environment when making plans for land use, construction and development of districts, river basins and sea areas. The State Environmental Protection Administration in 2002 authorized the presence of specialized personnel at the 13 key national projects to assess and control their environmental impact. These projects included the laying of railroad lines in Qinghai Province and Tibet and the laying of pipeline transporting natural gas from western China to the eastern coastal areas. On some sections of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in northern Tibet, those in charge of construction planned and designed according to the requirements of the environmental protection authorities to protect the grassland, and on average every kilometer of railway in those sections cost an extra 20 million yuan.

Eco-provinces 

The State Council in 2000 provided in its "Outline for National Eco-Environmental Protection" eco-provinces, eco-cities, eco-counties and townships to preserve and promote the environment while promoting local economies and awareness of environmental issues. Today, trial eco-province construction is being carried out in eight provinces, including Hainan, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong and Anhui. Jilin Province has earmarked for 2001-2005 more than 38 billion yuan on eco-industry and eco-environment construction. Heilongjiang Province has been developing green products in line with its resources and industry. Zhejiang Province has included ecological construction into the system of responsibility for work goals of administrative heads at all levels of governments throughout the province.

Environmental Protection Industry 

The government has gradually increased the proportion of funds of environmental protection in the GDP from 0.72 percent in 1989 to 1.33 percent in 2003. According to statistics of the State Environmental Protection Administration, from 1998 to 2002, a total of 580 billion yuan was invested in environmental protection and ecological construction around the country, which is 1.8 times the total investment in this aspect in the 48 years between 1950 and 1997. In 2003, 136.34 billion yuan was invested in treatment of environmental pollution around China, marking an increase of 23.2 percent from the year before. In the total investment, 78.53 billion yuan was used in construction of environmental infrastructure in urban areas, 18.84 billion yuan in treatment of sources of industrial pollution, and 38.97 billion yuan in environmental protection in new construction projects.
        In the 21st century, China's environmental protection industry has grown at an average annual rate of 17 percent, much faster than the growth of national economy in the same period. In 2002, the output value of the national environmental protection industry reached 220 billion yuan, compared to the four billion yuan in 1992. At present, China's environmental protection enterprises are mainly located in more developed areas in the east along the coast and rivers, and among them 6 percent are large enterprises with fixed assets worth more than 50 million yuan.

Protection of Forests and Control of Desertification 

While many countries in the world have seen a decline in forest resources, China has increased both the area and reserves of its forests and was listed as one of the 15 countries preserving the most area of forests by the United Nations Environment Program. The forest coverage rate in China is 16.55 percent. 
        From 1998 to 2001, the Central Government invested 42.7 billion yuan in central and western China to protect vegetation, subsidize local farmers and promote projects transforming over-cultivated farmland back to forests and pastures. The project to reforest cultivated land has been implemented in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and centrally administered municipalities.  Reforesting cultivated land has been carried out in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. 
        By 2003, some 11.27 million ha of cultivated land had been reforested throughout China. Another effective measure of forest protection is the natural forest conservation program started in 1998 that stipulated a nationwide end to the felling of trees in natural forests. As stipulated by the Research Report on China's Sustainable Development Strategy on Forestry, China's forest coverage rate is expected by 2050 to reach 28 percent, with an added area of 110 million ha of planted forest.
        Desertification is one of the most severe environmental problems in China. The area of desertification, which is 2.62 million sq km or about 27 percent of China's land territory, far exceeds the nation's total farmland. Today, although the desertification has been curbed in some areas, it still is expanding at a rate of more than 3,000 sq km every year.
        The State Forestry Administration has implemented a nationwide sand control program, which has three phases: The first phase aims to get a basic control of desertification by 2010; the second phase aims then to reduce the area of desertification year by year until 2030; and the third phase aims to raise the nation's forest cover and bring all desertification sources under effective control by the year 2050.

Nature Reserves 

China's first nature reserve was the Dinghu Mountain Nature Reserve in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province established in 1956. By the end of 2003, some 1,551 nature reserves of various kinds have been set up throughout the country, covering a total area of 144.72 million hectares, and accounting for 14.4 percent of the total land territory. Protected through these nature reserves are 88 percent of the land eco-system types, 87 percent of the wildlife populations, 65 percent of the higher plant communities, nearly 20 percent of the natural forests, 50 percent of the marshland and wetland of the country, main habitats of more than 300 precious and endangered species of wild animals, and major areas where more than 130 precious varieties of trees are found.
        The Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve is China's largest (covering a total area of 316,000 sq km), highest (averagely at over 4,000 meters above sea level) nature reserve with the most concentrated biodiversity. Established in August 2000, it is located in the central area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, at the source of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers. A total investment of 220 million yuan in the Sanjiangyuan protection project has been made by the state. Yunnan Province has 157 nature reserves, the most in the country, covering a total area of 2.99 million ha. Twenty-two of China's nature reserves have been designated by UNESCO as "World Biosphere Reserves" with the most recent additions in 2003 of Wudalianchi, a site of mineral springs, caves and volcanoes about an hour north of Harbin in Heilongjiang Province, and Yading, an area of high snowy mountains and pastures considered an epicenter of biodiversity within the new Three Parallel Rivers National Park and World Heritage Site in western Sichuan Province.

Wetland Protection 

 China's wetlands include 10 percent of all the wetlands in the world. These wetland areas not only are vital to the earth's ecology but also are attractive places for people for birding and observing other wildlife, fishing (both commercial and recreational) and development of eco-tourism and environmental education. Since joining the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1992, China's government has preserved and restored its wetland resources. By the end of 2003, China had established 353 natural wetland reserves, many of which are low beaches by the seas, lakes and rivers and wetlands on the edges of forests. Twenty-one of China's natural wetland reserves have been recognized as Wetlands of International Importance, covering a total area of 3.03 million ha. The Lalu Wetland in Lhasa, Tibet, the world's highest, largest natural wetland within a city, has stopped shrinking because of effective protection, and has enlarged from less than six sq km at the end of last century to today's 6.2 sq km. The rate of its vegetation coverage, most of which is grassy marsh, has surpassed 95 percent.
        A National Plan for Wetland Protection Actions was begun in November 2000, initiated by the State Forestry Bureau and formulated by 17 ministries and commissions of the State Council. The National Program for Wetland Protection Engineering approved by the State Council in 2003 set these goals: by 2030, China will have 713 wetland reserves, including 80 wetlands of international importance, where over 90 percent of natural wetlands are effectively protected; at the same time, 1.4 million ha of wetlands will be restored, and 53 national model zones of wetland protection and proper exploitation will be built, forming a relatively complete system of wetland protection, management and construction.

Marine Protection 

The Law on Protection of the Ocean Environment was promulgated in 1982, amended in 1999 and put into effect in April 2000. The amended law applies to the supervision and management of the ocean environment; to the surveying, monitoring, assessing and conducting of scientific research of the ocean environment, to construction projects for control of ocean pollution, and to ending pollution through ocean dumping. One action taken to clean up the sea has been the "Blue Sea Action Program" in the Bohai Sea, off the coast of North China, which is one of the country's most populous and developed areas. This program aims to halt discharge of industrial wastes, to monitor environmental pollution and to restore damage done to the ecological system. According to the SEPA, at least 55.5 billion yuan (US$6.7 billion) in total investment will make the 15-year program the biggest ever effort of China to improve the ocean environment.

Biodiversity 

China has rich biodiversity, boasting the largest number of bird species and gymnosperm varieties in the world. But China's biodiversity is faced with a critical situation: 15 to 20 percent of higher plant varieties are endangered, threatening the existence of 40,000 species of organisms related with them.
        As one of the earliest contracting country to the Convention on Biological Diversity, China has been active in international affairs concerning the Convention and vocal on important issues related to biodiversity. China is also one of the few countries to complete the Convention's action plans. The China Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation implemented in 1994 provided rules and regulations for a lot of eco-environmental protection activities. According to the Law on the Protection of Wildlife, the highest punishment for crimes of damaging wildlife resources is the death penalty.
Emphasizing effective protection of biological resources, relevant government departments have built and put into operation facilities for preserving genetic resources. In January 2003, the Chinese Academy of Sciences initiated a project of saving endangered plants with an aim to increase the plant varieties from 13,000 to 21,000 under the protection of its 12 affiliated botanic gardens within 15 years and to build a botanic garden covering a total area of 458 sq km, which will be the largest in the world. In this project, over 300 million yuan will be invested in collection of rare and endangered plants, and genetic banks will be built with the Qinling Mountain, Wuhan, Xishuangbanna and Beijing as the centers.
        To help save endangered wildlife, 250 wildlife breeding centers have been established throughout the country, and special projects have been carried out to protect seven species, including giant pandas and red ibises. At present, the wild population of the giant panda remains at more than 1,000 in continuously improved conditions. The red ibis population has increased from seven to over 560, relieving that bird's endangered situation. The population of artificially bred Chinese alligators is nearly 10,000. The population of Eld's deer has increased from 26 to more than 800. The population of relic gulls has increased from 2,000 to more than 10,000. Sightings of tigers rarely seen in recent times have been reported in the northeastern, eastern and southern parts of China. Construction began in October 2003 for a nature reserve for white-flag dolphins, one of the most endangered animals in the world, in Zhenjiang on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. After persistent combat against poaching in cooperation with many international animal protection organizations, the population of Tibetan antelopes, which had shrunken sharply because of poaching, now remains at about 70,000.