Existing laws and policies for land and water resource management
There are many laws and policies for land and water resource management in China, such as the Law of Land Administration of the PRC and its Regulations, Law of the PRC on water and soil conservation, on prevention and control of desertification, on grassland, on flood control, on agriculture, on forest, on water, and so on. The most important policy is Regulations on Conversion of Farmland to Forests (Adopted at the 66th Executive Meeting of the State Council on December 6, 2002, promulgated by Decree No. 367 of the State Council of the PRC on December 14, 2002, and effective as of January 20, 2003).
In the Law of Land Administration of the PRC, there are detailed requirements on natural resources protection. For example:
- In Article 9: Land owned by the State and land collectively owned by peasants may be allocated to be used by organizations or individuals according to law. Organizations or individuals using land shall be responsible for the protection, management and a rational use of the land.
- Article 19: General plans for land use should be mapped out according to the following principles: protect and improve the ecological environment to ensure a sustainable use of land.
- Article 34: The State fosters the system of protecting the basic farmland. The following cultivated land shall be demarcated as basic farmland protection areas and subject to stringent control according to the general plans for the utilization of land: cultivated land with good water conservancy and water and soil conservation facilities and medium-and low-yielding land where the execution of amelioration plans is in progress or medium-and low-yielding land that is transformable.
- Article 35: People's governments at all levels shall adopt measures to maintain and protect irrigation and drainage facilities, ameliorate the soil to raise its fertility and prevent desertification, salinization, water loss and soil erosion and pollution.
- Article 74: When cultivated land is occupied to build kilns or graves or build houses, dig sand, collect stones, do mining or collect soil from the cultivated land without authorization, thus damaging the conditions for growing crops or causing desertification and salinization due to land development in violation of this law, the land administrative departments of the people's governments at and above the county level shall order correction or improvement within a prescribed time limit and concurrently impose a fine. Whereas the case constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be affixed.
In the Law of The PRC on Water and Soil Conservation, all units and individuals shall have the obligation to protect water and soil resources, prevent and control soil erosion, and also have the right to report against a unit or individual that damages water and soil resources and causes soil erosion (Article 3). Reclamation of hillsides with a slope of over 25 degrees for cultivation of crops shall be prohibited. The people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may, in line with the actual conditions of the areas under their respective jurisdiction, prescribe a reclamation-forbidden slope of below 25 degrees (Article 14). Water and soil conservation measures must be adopted to prevent soil erosion when preparations for afforestation, tending of young growth, and cultivation of commodity trees such as oil-tea camellia and tung tree are done on hillsides with a slope of above 5 degrees (Article 17).
In Regulations on Conversion of Farmland to Forests, Article 15: The following farmland shall be covered by planning for conversion of farmland to forests, and be converted to forests in a planned manner according to the ecological development requirements and the State's financial resources: (1) land seriously affected by soil and water erosion; (2) land seriously affected by sandy desertification, salinization or rocky desertification; and (3) land of ecological importance but with low and unstable grain yield.
