3 types of paths, 5 key points!Experts analyze the "routines" of marine EOD projects

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently held a meeting in Xiamen City, Fujian Province to promote the key work of marine ecological and environmental protection, clearly promoting the construction of a general pattern of protection and governance from the top of the mountain to the sea, and promoting high-quality economic development with high-level protection.

In recent years, the quality of China's marine ecological environment has continued to improve, but the structural, root cause and trend pressures on the protection of the marine ecological environment have not been fundamentally alleviated, and the task of coordinating development and protection is still arduous.

On February 19, at the press briefing on typical cases of high-quality deliberation of representative proposals held by the Representative Working Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the relevant responsible comrades of the Department of Oceanography of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that they would coordinate and guide coastal areas to actively apply for relevant central and local financial support such as marine ecological restoration, and jointly invest in the construction of beautiful bays, especially the EOD projects declared by Dongtou and Fujian in Wenzhou, Zhejiang.

So, is there a "routine" to follow in the EOD model of environmental remediation in coastal waters, what are the implementation paths, and what problems should be paid attention to?

"The planning and implementation of EOD projects for environmental remediation in coastal waters need to be considered from five aspects: identification of ecological and environmental problems, selection of industrial development content, screening of investment and operation entities, protection of relevant rights and interests elements, and establishment of long-term guarantee mechanism, so as to consolidate the foundation for the organic unity of marine ecological environmental protection and development of marine economy with characteristics. Zhao Yunhao, director of the EOD Innovation Center of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said.

Environmental remediation of coastal watersEODModel Project Implementation Essentials Framework

How do I find a problem?

Ecological and environmental governance is the core content of the EOD project. What are the issues to focus on in the EOD project of environmental remediation in coastal waters?

In accordance with the requirements of the core essence of the EOD model, the EOD project of environmental remediation in coastal waters must be based on solving the problems of the marine ecological environment, fully tap the value of ecological and environmental elements, innovate and develop characteristic related industries, balance the overall investment of the project through industrial development and operation, and be implemented by a market entity in an integrated manner, so as to realize the high-quality coordinated development of marine ecological environmental protection and marine industry economy.

According to relevant statistics from the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, as of the end of March 2023, 14 coastal cities in 7 provinces, including Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, have promoted a total of 21 coastal marine environmental remediation EOD projects, accounting for 13.94% of the total investment in EOD projects in the country. The total investment in ecological environment governance content of 21 projects accounted for 24% of the total investment in the project, of which the largest investment in ecological environment governance content accounted for 36.4%, and the rest of the cities accounted for 12.0%~32.6%.

"The EOD model of environmental remediation in coastal waters should be highly unified with the development direction of key areas of national marine ecology, and is an effective path to realize the value of marine ecological products. Zhao Yunhao emphasized.

In 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Battle of Pollution Prevention and Control", which included the comprehensive treatment of key sea areas as one of the landmark battles of the "14th Five-Year Plan" to fight the battle of pollution prevention and control. Subsequently, the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Encouraging and Supporting Social Capital to Participate in Ecological Protection and Restoration" clearly supported the "implementation of the return of enclosures to beaches and the sea, the improvement and restoration of coastlines and beaches, the comprehensive management of estuaries and bays, the maintenance of important ecological corridors in the coastal zone, the proliferation of aquatic biological resources, and the protection of habitats". The "14th Five-Year Plan" for the Protection of the Marine Ecological Environment issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other 6 departments has clarified the key work directions of ecological and environmental protection in China, key sea areas and coastal provinces and cities, and the Action Plan for the Comprehensive Treatment of Key Sea Areas further proposes the investigation and remediation of sewage outlets into the sea, the improvement of water quality of rivers entering the sea, the comprehensive treatment of key river basins, the pollution control of coastal cities, the pollution control of coastal agriculture and rural areas, the environmental improvement of marine aquaculture, the prevention and control of pollution from ships and ports, and the environmental improvement of coastal beaches. Eight major actions such as marine ecological protection and restoration, and the construction of beautiful bays.

"At this stage, the EOD project of environmental remediation in coastal waters should fully connect with the major tasks in the field of ecological environment in the 14th Five-Year Plan. Xu Wenli, EOD Innovation Center of the Academy of Environmental Planning of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, told reporters that according to the requirements of national and local policy documents, the content of ecological environment governance should be based on the outstanding marine ecological environment problems in the sea area, closely focusing on the key tasks of ecological environment governance, with the goal of improving the quality of the ecological environment in the sea area, and guided by the extension and upgrading of the value chain of characteristic related industries. Comprehensive management of estuary bays, maintenance of important ecological corridors in coastal zones, proliferation of aquatic biological resources, habitat protection, demonstration construction of beautiful bays and other ecological environment governance.

It is understood that among the 21 EOD projects currently being promoted in coastal cities, the comprehensive management of the marine ecological environment is the main type of ecological and environmental governance, taking into account the implementation of comprehensive management of the rural environment in coastal areas, the treatment of rivers and lakes entering the sea, and the treatment of marine solid waste.

How to choose an industry?

The "Guidelines for the Implementation of Eco-Environment-Oriented Development (EOD) Projects (Trial)" issued in January this year clearly states that it is necessary to analyze the role of ecological and environmental governance in enhancing the value of advantageous industries, and identify advantageous industries with large room for value improvement as related industries. Identify advantageous industries with large development space, good market expectations, good project returns, and strong feedback ability.

Xu Wenli also made it clear that in the implementation of EOD projects, "the selection of related industries should follow the three principles of distinctive characteristics, good foundation and significant benefits, which are in line with the actual local social and economic development, and are strongly related to the value enhancement brought by the improvement of the ecological environment." ”

Specific to the EOD model of environmental remediation in coastal waters, Xu Wenli introduced that the related industries of marine restoration EOD projects can choose the production of material products such as ecological aquaculture, marine aquatic product processing, ecological planting, marine resources utilization such as marine drugs and biological products, cultural tourism services such as coastal tourism and coastal health care, marine public management services, port services and other marine related services, and in the future, marine ecological product trading related industries such as marine carbon sink development and trading can also be selected to enrich the value realization path of marine ecological products.

From a practical point of view, among the 21 EOD projects that have been promoted so far, the related industries are mainly eco-tourism, eco-breeding, eco-agriculture, cultural tourism and health care. Among them, the number of projects related to ecotourism accounts for a relatively large proportion, accounting for 54%.

In addition to identifying problems and selecting industries, EOD projects for environmental remediation in coastal waters should also be considered from the aspects of investment and operation entity selection, protection of relevant rights and interests elements, and establishment of long-term guarantee mechanism.

For marine restoration EOD projects, the ecological and environmental governance content involved should be consistent with the existing relevant national and local planning and policy objectives, including economic and social development planning, regional planning, territorial spatial planning, as well as special plans such as ecological environmental protection planning and industrial development planning, as well as policy objectives such as expanding domestic demand, common prosperity, rural revitalization, ecological environment, energy conservation and emission reduction, carbon peak and carbon neutrality, industrial policies and industry access conditions.

If the project involves land and sea islands, it must meet the requirements for development and utilization, and the market entity can obtain the right to use the land through allocation, agreement transfer, bidding, auction and listing, leasing, etc.

At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that regional resources and environmental elements can support the implementation of the project, including water resource consumption, energy consumption, carbon emission intensity and pollution reduction index control requirements.

In addition, if the project income involves water resources, sand and gravel, minerals and other related resources, and the utilization of waste such as sediment and mine waste soil and stone, it is necessary to ensure that the operating rights and interests such as raw materials, processing and sales can be obtained, and if the indicators of water intake and water diversion and centralized photovoltaic grid access are involved, it is necessary to ensure that the indicators can be obtained.

Three types of typical paths

Are there any "examples" to follow for EOD projects in coastal waters?

In this regard, Xu Wenli summarized the typical implementation paths of three types of EOD, including the environmental remediation of coastal waters and the integrated development of seaport economy, the environmental remediation and restoration of coastal waters and the integrated development of marine culture and tourism, and the improvement of rural environment and ecological planting and breeding into the sea.

The first is the integrated development of coastal water environment improvement and port economy. Through the implementation of environmental governance projects such as island ecological protection and restoration, the project carries out comprehensive management of river basins and oceans in the region, systematically improves the regional ecological environment, gives full play to the basic advantages of good ecological conditions of fishing ports and complete and mature fishing port service industry chains, and cultivates and forms characteristic fishing port industries with the comprehensive development of marine resources, island resources and marine fishing culture as the carrier, promotes the local marine economic chain to strengthen, extend and supplement the chain, and fully integrates the protection of the marine ecological environment with the innovation of the marine economy, so as to provide the "two mountains" of the ocean Theory and practice provide useful references.

The second category is the integrated development of environmental remediation and restoration in coastal waters and marine culture and tourism. The project focuses on the overall restoration and improvement of the ecology of islands and reefs, considers the ecological environment of coastal waters near islands and reefs, and implements the construction of waste-free beaches, the ecological restoration and management of island mountains and mines, tourism development, and the development and construction of marine leisure sports, so as to systematically improve the quality of coastal waters and restore the ecology of islands and bays. Through the excavation and development of cultural and tourism resources on ocean islands, we will promote the integrated development of cultural inheritance and leisure and health care industries, highlight the characteristics of oceans, islands and coasts, and form a good pattern of continuous improvement of the ecological environment, innovative development of the industrial economy, and high-level improvement of people's income.

The third category is the integrated development of rural environmental improvement and ecological planting and breeding in the sea. The project takes the protection, restoration and management of ecological wetlands around the reservoir as the main line, the three related industries of ecological agriculture, ecological fishery and eco-tourism as the support, and the environmental quality projects such as village relocation and environmental remediation in the region as the starting point, systematically resolves the prevention and control of non-point source pollution in the basin and rural life, focuses on the pollution problem of the estuary, purifies the marine aquaculture environment, improves the quality of the reservoir and the surrounding environment, and creates an ecological barrier circle of the reservoir. With the comprehensive development of ecological resources in the reservoir area as the core of development, we will build a platform for the development of ecological industry, expand the upstream and downstream deep processing industry and platform sales based on the advantages of ecological agriculture and ecological fishery, so as to realize the effective extension of the industrial chain, a high degree of integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and gradually cultivate and form characteristic industries. Coordinate and promote the coordinated development of ecological environment governance and eco-agriculture, eco-fishery and eco-tourism related industries, and realize the organic unity of the three goals of water source protection, high-quality resource appreciation and rural revitalization.

"The future planning and implementation of the EOD project of environmental remediation in coastal waters should give full play to the advantages of resources and environment on the basis of in-depth integration of policy requirements, and empower industrial development through multiple channels, so as to achieve the coordinated development of ecological environment and social economy. Zhao Yunhao emphasized.