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The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will apply and promote good experiences and practices such as the "Xiamen Practice" to further promote marine ecological and environmental protection work with a higher position and more practical measures.

¡õ Zhang Wei, reporter of this newspaper

"Go to the beach!" During the just-concluded "May Day" holiday, the azure blue water, the cool sea breeze, the fine sand...the beautiful scenery of the seaside is still a popular choice for people to travel.

This confirms the outstanding achievements of China's marine ecological and environmental protection to some extent. On the eve of the "May Day" holiday, Zhang Zhifeng, deputy director of the Marine Ecological Environment Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, publicly called out at a press conference held by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment: "As the "May Day" holiday is approaching, we also welcome everyone to take the beautiful bays along the coast as a destination for traveling with family and friends."

Now it seems that this is indeed a good idea. The reporter recently learned from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will apply and promote good experiences and practices such as the "Xiamen Practice" to further promote marine ecological and environmental protection work with a higher position and more practical measures, so that the beautiful bays with "clear water, clean beaches, fish and gulls, and harmonious people and sea" will be built more and more beautiful, and the sense of gain and happiness of the people near the sea will become stronger and stronger, and the path of transforming the blue sea and silver beach into gold and silver mountains will become wider and wider, and the results will be more significant.

Beautiful bays benefit from careful polishing

Ms. Li, who just returned to Beijing after the "May Day" holiday from Dongshan Island, Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, told the "Legal Daily" reporter that there, she and her family enjoyed a whole holiday listening to the waves and watching the sea, and a comfortable and pleasant coastal vacation life. "Before I went there, I heard people say that the scenery here is beautiful, and sure enough, it is really beautiful."

The Nanmen Bay-Maluan Bay section she visited was once selected into the "List of Excellent Cases of Beautiful Bays" announced by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The recommendation reason published by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment is described as follows: "Dongshan Island in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province adheres to the coordinated management of land and sea, and promotes the comprehensive improvement of the ecological environment of the bay through the implementation of governance measures such as the connection of the Bashimen sea area, and organically combines the beautiful natural scenery with the development of the cultural tourism industry. The ecological dividends of the bay area are continuously released. Combined with the construction of beautiful bays, the beautiful Maluan Bay, the Nanmen Bay with both cultural customs, the shimmering Yunan Bay, and the Jinluan Bay with golden beaches and blue seas are carefully polished, and actively create a "public sea-friendly" beautiful bay with beautiful ecological environment, healthy ecosystem, and sufficient sea-friendly space."

It is understood that Dongshan Island adheres to the coordinated management of land and sea, and promotes the comprehensive improvement of the ecological environment of the bay. Invest 1.698 billion yuan to implement the integrated project of urban and rural sewage collection and treatment, achieve full coverage of sewage treatment in the bay area, and the water quality compliance rate of the marine functional area of the Nanmen Bay-Jinluan Bay section is 100%. Adhere to the restoration and protection at the same time, and promote the "island green", "ocean blue" and "coral red" to complement each other. Dongshan County invests at least 50 million yuan every year to green 10,000 mu of land and plant Casuarina equisetifolia to build an ecological forest belt and a green Great Wall for the bay. Implement the ecological restoration project of the Bashimen sea area to achieve "sea connection and seawater integration" in the Bashimen sea area 60 years later. Build the Dongshan-Nan'ao Biological Migration Corridor Demonstration Coastal Zone Integrated Management and Biodiversity Protection Area, and the coral protection area has 646 aquatic organisms. Release ecological dividends and continuously expand and improve the quality of sea-friendly space. Build the Bay Park project, create a seaside bathing beach, a coastal walking trail, an Austronesian cultural theme park, a tourism complex project, and other projects. Build a 17.49-kilometer ecological ring road pilot section, attracting a large number of tourists to the island every year. In 2022, the number of tourists received will reach 5.45 million, and the tourism revenue will exceed 6.5 billion yuan.

It is worth noting that the rule of law plays an important role in this. It is understood that the local authorities have established a joint law enforcement mechanism, and the ecological environment, natural resources, and maritime police departments have established a joint law enforcement mechanism, and have continued to carry out the Green Shield special operation to severely investigate and punish illegal and irregular acts of destroying corals in the coral protection area. At the same time, an ecological environmental damage compensation and restoration mechanism has been established. China has pioneered the "judicial + insurance + restoration" model to insure about 612 hectares of reef-building corals in the core area of the Dongshan Coral Provincial Nature Reserve in Fujian.

Ocean governance makes the water clearer and the bay more beautiful

The governance results of Dongshan Island are a microcosm of the fruitful results achieved in China's marine ecological environment governance.

According to Zhang Zhifeng, since last year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has deeply studied and implemented the experience and concept of "Xiamen Practice", and in accordance with the deployment requirements of the Party Central Committee on "fighting several beautiful landmark battles with higher standards", it has coordinated and promoted the protection of marine ecological environment and achieved good phased results.

Land and sea governance "clearer water". The Ministry of Ecology and Environment insists on combining key breakthroughs with coordinated governance, and regards the total nitrogen treatment of rivers entering the sea and the investigation and rectification of sewage outlets entering the sea as the top priority of the comprehensive governance battle in key sea areas, and strives to improve the water quality of the Bohai Sea, the Yangtze River Estuary-Hangzhou Bay, and the Pearl River Estuary. At the same time, with the bay as the basic unit, other coastal cities in China will coordinate and promote land-sea coordinated pollution prevention and control. In 2023, the average total nitrogen concentration of the sections of China's state-controlled rivers entering the sea will decrease by 12.2% year-on-year, and the proportion of excellent water quality in coastal waters will reach 85.0%, an increase of 3.1 percentage points year-on-year, achieving the "six consecutive increases" since 2018.

Improve quality and expand the scope of "more beautiful bays". The Ministry of Ecology and Environment insists on combining demonstration and guidance with step-by-step promotion, and selects the second batch of 12 outstanding cases of beautiful bays such as the southeastern waters of Xiamen, and summarizes and promotes local typical experiences and practices. The "Action Plan for Improving the Construction of Beautiful Bays" was issued and implemented, and local governments were organized to further expand the scope of construction, promote the construction of more than 100 bays with "one bay, one policy" to build beautiful bays, and highlight quality improvement, efficiency enhancement and normal supervision. In 2023, the water quality of 126 of China's 283 bays will improve compared with the average of the previous three years, and 24 typical marine ecosystems will remain "unhealthy" for three consecutive years.

Multiple measures to make beaches cleaner. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment adheres to the combination of normal governance and model innovation. On the basis of organizing and carrying out special cleaning operations in 11 key bays in the early stage, it jointly implements the marine garbage cleaning operation in coastal cities with relevant departments, guides local governments to take multiple measures to clean beaches and clear floating debris, and establish and improve a normalized work system and institutional mechanisms. Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, has created a new "blue cycle" governance model, achieved full visual traceability of the recycling and utilization of marine plastic waste, and achieved synergistic efficiency in carbon reduction and pollution reduction, and won the United Nations "Earth Guardian" Award.

More practical measures to protect the sea in accordance with the law. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment adheres to the combination of institutional innovation and strict supervision. The newly revised Marine Environmental Protection Law has been officially promulgated and implemented, further strengthening the coordination of land and sea, regional linkage, and comprehensive governance, and clarifying a series of innovative systems and practical measures in marine pollution prevention and control, ecological protection and restoration, supervision and management law enforcement. Strict supervision of sewage outlets into the sea, marine aquaculture, marine engineering and marine dumping activities in accordance with the law. As of now, China's coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have identified more than 53,000 sewage outlets into the sea and completed the remediation of more than 16,000.

Strict supervision and legal governance of marine garbage

Let the people enjoy the blue sea and blue sky and clean beaches, which is inseparable from strict supervision and effective governance of marine garbage.

Marine plastic garbage pollution, which has a huge impact on the marine ecological environment, has long been widely concerned due to its complex sources and wide range of impact. In related governance work, the rule of law plays an important role.

For example, the newly revised Marine Environmental Protection Law has made detailed provisions on establishing and improving the marine garbage governance supervision work system and institutional mechanisms, and clearly stated that the local people's governments at or above the county level in coastal areas are responsible for the prevention and control of marine garbage pollution, and require all coastal areas to clarify the marine garbage control areas, establish a marine garbage monitoring and cleaning system and a full-chain work system and organize their implementation. "These regulations reflect the idea of systematic governance and form a closed loop of coordinated land and sea governance of marine garbage." Zhang Zhifeng said.

Model innovation in some places has also achieved very good results. Among them, a typical example is the new model of marine plastic governance of "Blue Cycle" in Taizhou, Zhejiang, which won the United Nations "Earth Guardian" Award. In 2022, at the press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the mobile phone cases made of recycled marine plastics by relevant enterprises left a very deep impression on media reporters. Now, after two years of hard work, "Blue Cycle" has achieved iterative upgrades from "ocean to shelf" based on technologies such as blockchain and the Internet of Things, allowing fishermen to pick up recycled waste plastics at sea and transform them into more high-value-added products, becoming a new quality productivity for synergistic efficiency reduction of pollution and carbon reduction.

Recently, a list of "shelf-type" products produced by relevant enterprises using recycled marine plastics appeared at the press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. The reporter saw from the list that there are various marine plastic particles, beautiful stationery, daily necessities and popular clothing, etc. Scanning the QR code can visually trace the source of marine plastics used in various products throughout the process.

According to Zhang Zhifeng, in 2023, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment organized 11 key bays such as Qinhuangdao Bay and Xiamen Bay to take the lead in implementing special cleaning operations in China. In the past year, a total of about 55,300 tons of marine garbage have been cleaned up, and rich practical experience has been explored and accumulated.

On this basis, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other departments, jointly formulated the "Action Plan for Cleaning Marine Garbage in Coastal Cities". Zhang Zhifeng revealed that the plan will be issued and implemented in the near future. The main task is to organize coastal cities to focus on 65 bays adjacent to urban built-up areas, systematically carry out a three-year dragnet-style marine garbage cleaning operation, and further establish and improve the work system and institutional mechanisms.

In the next step, supervision will continue to be strengthened. The reporter learned from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment that the ecological environment system will increase the regular supervision of plastic pollution in key bays through multiple technical means such as drones and video surveillance, guide and urge coastal areas to implement various tasks such as marine garbage monitoring, interception, collection, salvage, transportation, and treatment in accordance with the law, and continuously establish and improve a closed-loop management system from source control, environmental cleaning to recycling.

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