|
China attaches great importance to the protection of the marine
environment. Organs and laws aimed at marine environmental protection
have been gradually established, and the people's consciousness
of the importance of protecting the marine environment and abiding
by the laws have been further strengthened, both of which have speeded
up the work of marine environmental protection. As a result, the
momentum of serious marine pollution has been slowed; the environmental
quality of some of the country's sea areas has been improved; and
most offshore waters are of good quality, despite the drastic increase
in the amounts of pollutants brought about by the booming economy
of the coastal areas.
In 1982 the Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People's
Republic of China, a basic law of the country to protect the marine
environment, was approved by the NPC Standing Committee to prevent
damage to the marine environment resulting from coastal construction
projects, offshore oil exploration and exploitation, navigation
of ships, wastes dumping, and discharge of land-sourced pollutants.
Later, several concrete regulations were issued by the Chinese government,
such as the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the
Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution Caused by Ships, Regulations
of the People's Republic of China on Environmental Protection and
Control Pertaining to Offshore Oil Exploration and Exploitation,
Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Control of the
Marine Dumping of Wastes, Regulations of the People's Republic of
China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution from
Shipbreaking, Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the
Prevention and Control of Pollution Damage to the Marine Environment
from Land-Sourced Pollutants, and Regulations of the People's Republic
of China on the Prevention and Control of Pollution Damage to the
Marine Environment from Coastal Construction Projects. In addition,
a dozen rules and standards were enacted concerning marine environmental
protection by government departments. All of these laws, regulations
and rules have formed a legal framework for marine environmental
protection. Besides, programs and plans for marine environmental
protection, professional plans for the protection of wetlands and
biological diversity, an overall marine monitoring network and a
nearshore environmental monitoring network have also been put in
place by related state organizations.
In recent years, an administration system for marine environmental
protection has been gradually set up: State environmental protection
departments are in charge of marine environmental protection for
the whole country; state marine administrations are responsible
for the organization of survey, monitoring and surveillance of the
marine environment, the conduct of scientific research and the prevention
of pollution damage to the marine environment resulting from offshore
oil exploration and exploitation and the dumping of wastes at sea;
state harbor administrations are responsible for the supervision,
investigation and disposal of pollutant discharge by ships, the
surveillance of harbor waters and the prevention of pollution damage
to the marine environment caused by vessels; state fishing port
administrations are responsible for the supervision of pollutant
discharge by fishing boats and the surveillance of fishing grounds;
environmental protection organs of the armed forces are responsible
for the supervision of pollutant discharge by military vessels and
surveillance of naval port waters; and environmental protection
organs of the local people's governments in coastal areas are responsible
for the environmental protection work of preventing pollution damage
resulting from coastal construction projects and land-sourced pollutants.
This coordinated network plays an important role in the implementation
of the related laws and the efficient protection of the marine environment.
China carries out the policy of putting prevention first and combining
prevention with control in managing existing marine pollution. While
endeavoring to make a success in the protection of marine biological
resources and the prevention and control of marine pollution, China
makes the prevention and control of land-sourced pollution the focal
point of its marine environmental protection work. A series of regulations
have been drawn up to check land-sourced pollutant emission, and
enhance the monitoring, surveillance and control of the main pollutant-emission
outlets. Large and medium-sized cities have paid constant attention
to readjusting the distribution of industries, improving technical
transformation, and recovering waste gas, waste water and industrial
residue (the "three wastes") for multipurpose use. Enterprises creating
serious pollution are required to take effective measures to control
it within a definite period of time; otherwise they have to close
down, suspend operations, merge with other plants, change their
products or move to other places. Besides, a number of sewage treatment
plants have been built to control new pollution sources and reduce
the amount of land-sourced pollutants dumped into the sea. To prevent
marine pollution resulting from ship and port discharge, in addition
to the formulation of the Crash Program to Combat Ships' Oil Pollution,
oil-water separators have been installed aboard ships of all types
in accordance with relevant stipulations, and oil-polluted water
treatment equipment, including emergency treatment equipment, has
been installed at all sea ports. This equipment can help dispose
of 3.7 million tons of oil-polluted water from vessels and recover
42,000 tons of waste oil a year. Similarly, to prevent marine environment
pollution resulting from offshore oil exploitation, besides the
formulation by offshore oilfields of the Crash Program to Combat
Oil Spills During Offshore Oil Exploration and Exploitation, oil-polluted
water treatment equipment has been installed on all drilling platforms,
engine-room oil-water separators have also been installed aboard
all drilling ships, and oil barriers, chemical de-oiling agents
and spill recovery ships provided in all China's offshore oilfields.
As one of the contracting parties to the Convention on the Prevention
of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matters signed
in 1972 in London, China attaches great importance to the fulfillment
of the provisions under the convention and is steadily improving
its control of the dumping of wastes into the sea. So far, China
has designated 34 dumping areas for dredged materials of the third
category and four areas for midair oil discharge. It has issued
about 2,000 dumping permits and tightened up the monitoring of the
environmental quality of dumping areas. Besides, it has strictly
prohibited the disposal of any radioactive substance and incineration
of toxic waste at sea, and plans to gradually stop the dumping of
industrial waste into the sea.
To protect the ecological environment of fishing grounds, the Water
Quality Standards of Fishing Grounds have been drawn up by the Chinese
government and the Regulations on the Supervision and Control of
the Environmental Sanitation of Shellfish-Raising Areas and other
regulations have been drawn up by departments concerned. In addition,
a sequence of measures have been taken to further strengthen the
eco-environmental protection of spawning grounds of saltwater fish
and shrimps, feeding grounds, wintering grounds, migration channels
and aquatic farms. A multilevel setup for the protection of the
fisheries environment has been established by the state and coastal
region authorities, including 15 monitoring stations at and above
the provincial level around the country and a number of marine life
protected areas in major fishing grounds. In 1995 the department
concerned worked out the Procedures for the Administration of Marine
Reserves, based on the guiding principle of ``conservation first,
appropriate exploitation and sustainable development,'' and divided
each marine nature reserve into core, buffer and experimental zones,
in order to improve the building and management of the marine nature
reserves. At present 59 marine protected areas, covering gulfs,
islands, estuaries, coasts, coral reefs, mangrove swamps, coastal
lagoons, marine natural history sites, seaweed beds and wetlands,
have been built, covering a total area of 12,900 sq km.
China is one of the countries which are most vulnerable to marine
calamities. The economic losses suffered by the coastal areas from
storms, tidal waves, ice floes, seaquakes, coastal erosion, typhoons,
fog and red tides account for about 10 percent of the total of all
natural disasters afflicting China. After making unremitting efforts
for decades, China has installed a basic marine environment and
disaster observation network and forecast-alarm system, covering
both offshore areas and distant waters, with the cooperation of
several departments. This network engages in analysis, forecast
and grading of major marine calamities, and runs maritime rescue
centers and coastal emergency stations. As a result, a marine disaster
alleviation framework has been put in place.
The rapid economic growth and steady population increase in the
coastal areas, coupled with the constant expansion of marine exploitation,
mean that China continues to face problems of marine environmental
protection and disaster alleviation. To cope with this situation,
China has adopted the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) and Long-Term
Program to the Year 2010 for National Marine Environmental Protection,
which further advances the three major policies of ``putting prevention
first, combining prevention with control,'' ``making the causer
of pollution responsible for treating it'' and ``improving the control
of the environment.'' The following are the principal measures China
will take to protect the marine environment:
--Control of pollution sources will be enhanced by setting quality
standards for the water in all parts of rivers which flow into the
sea, establishing a system to control the total amount of pollutant
discharge into the key sea areas, identifying the marine discharge
indices of the main pollutants, and strictly restricting discharge
above the initial amount;
--The investigation, monitoring and control of marine pollution
will be stepped up by improving the pollution monitoring network,
strengthening surveillance by satellites, ships and offshore monitoring
stations, and perfecting the law enforcement system;
--Fees will gradually be levied for pollutant discharge, and all
walks of life will be encouraged to develop marine environmental
protection technologies and industries;
--The construction of the system of marine monitoring and disaster
forecasting and alarm will be stepped up, complete with an observation
network, a data collection and communication network, a forecast-alarm
and service network and a data quality control system.
|