China's new era of ecological civilization

Xiao, Liangang; Zhao, Rongqin

doi:10.1126/science.aar3760

Cited by 78 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…China has increasingly displayed concerns for the protection and conservation of wild fisheries resources since 1949. The management priorities, once solely focused on optimizing economic values, now emphasize ecological values (Xiao & Zhao, ). We can better capture this broadscale shift by dividing the history of China’s fisheries management into four phases.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of marine fisheries management in China from 1949 to 2019: How did China get here and where does China go next?

Tang

Chang

et al. 2020

Fish and Fisheries

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China is the world’s biggest fishing nation and a major player in the global seafood trade. Its fisheries development can decisively influence the global seafood trade, food security and marine conservation. In recent years, significant changes have taken place in China’s fisheries management priorities, policies and regulations. In this paper, we review the evolving fisheries management practices in China to delineate changes in the management policies, methods and their performances from 1949 to 2019. We determined that the following issues impede the development, implementation and enforcement of fisheries policies and regulations, namely the large size of the fishing fleet, large and poorly organized fisheries population, the “hidden” fishing capacity, uniform management approaches that sometimes fail to account for local conditions, lack of clearly defined and allocated fishing rights, limited data quality and availability, insufficient fisheries monitoring programmes, absence of a robust scientific input framework and insufficient stakeholder involvement. Combining those problems with China’s current management initiatives, we propose recommendations for China’s future fisheries reforms. We hope this paper can inform China’s marine fisheries policies and provide valuable references for further researches related to China’s sustainable fisheries management.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of marine fisheries management in China from 1949 to 2019: How did China get here and where does China go next?

Tang

Chang

et al. 2020

Fish and Fisheries

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“…Humanity and ecosystems form a community of shared life by which people construct ecological civilization and achieve the goal of "beautiful China", and this was further reinforced in the 19th Committee in 2017. To achieve the 2015 environmental sustainable development goals as defined by the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), China began national ecological civilization construction [21]. E-flows became important parts of water ecological civilization construction.…”

Section: Consolidation and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing for Sustainability: The Development of Environmental Flows Implementation in China

Chen

2019

Water

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Environmental flows (e-flows) are important for river protection and restoration under degraded ecological conditions. With increasing public desire for and pursuit of sustainable development, e-flows are widely used to reflect the hydrological regime requirements for sustaining freshwater ecosystems and human livelihoods. Over the past 40 years, e-flows implementation has shifted from static minimum flows to dynamic flow components. However, e-flows standards used to manage flow releases from dams are to a great extent based on expert judgement and government supervision. These attributes make it difficult to effectively implement e-flows in the non-stationary world. The primary focus of this paper is to review the history, management systems and scientific basis of e-flows in China. Firstly, the study classifies the development phases into four periods and then analyses the underpinning legal system for e-flows implementation in each period, including the laws, regulations, policies and responsible authorities. Finally, the scientific basis and methods for e-flows determination and assessment were analyzed. The study showed that: (1) e-flows have been officially regarded as ecological flow in China, which evolved from minimum flow, and the contents and connotations are still broadening; (2) currently, there are too many authorities related to e-flows and complicated legal documents in China which lead to ineffective implementation; (3) the scientific basis of e-flows is enriched from the relationship between hydrological alteration and ecological response, so that the practices will be more holistic in China. Despite the successful practices of e-flows implementation in large rivers, there are challenges for implementing future e-flows in small rivers. This study recommended that future e-flows implementation be integrated with sustainable water management by setting clear responsibilities for governments, ministries, and other stakeholders.

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“…In China, the government has recently launched a new policy paradigm, ecological civilization, that calls on everyone at all levels to stop ignoring the environment in favor of the economy, and in fact, to pay much more attention to comprehensive environmental protection (see [156,157] [158].…”

Section: The Way Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Conservation in the Tibetan Plateau Region: Lessons for China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the Mountains of Central Asia

Foggin

2018

Land

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Environmental conservation has developed significantly in China over the past 20 years, including more collaborative approaches and recent advances in establishing a national parks system. This study reviews the development of protected areas in the headwaters of the Yangtze River, drawing lessons from experiences of community development and co-management approaches. Community engagement and participation in developing localized plans for natural resource utilization and conservation have been critical features of successful ventures. Government programs and policies, the emergence of grassroots civil society, and the development of herders' cooperatives and protected areas, are all tracked, each pointing towards the significant value of inclusive biodiversity conservation approaches for meeting broadly agreed development agendas, such as achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Observations from the vast, high, arid, and semi-arid lands of the Tibetan Plateau are then considered in light of China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is bringing vast financial and technical resources to the world. Special attention is given to applying the lessons that have been learned in China to the mountains of Central Asia, globally recognized as a biodiversity hotspot and a water tower for large downstream populations. Keeping local people at the heart of conservation is deemed fundamentally important.

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China's new era of ecological civilization

Cited by 78 publications

References 3 publications

Evolution of marine fisheries management in China from 1949 to 2019: How did China get here and where does China go next?

Evolution of marine fisheries management in China from 1949 to 2019: How did China get here and where does China go next?

Managing for Sustainability: The Development of Environmental Flows Implementation in China

Environmental Conservation in the Tibetan Plateau Region: Lessons for China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the Mountains of Central Asia

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