In the economic and social development planning, it is necessary to establish a dual index system of economic development and social development, determine the rigid constraint index of protecting the ecological environment, and supplement it with corresponding strict assessment methods;
Establish ecological environment as the paid possession and use system of space resources and the price formation mechanism of space resources, set up a reasonable ecological environment tax and fee system, and reflect the policy orientation of support and restriction in tax and fee adjustment;
Systematically study the influence of mineral resources development on mine geological environment, study the technical methods of maintaining mine geological environment from two different aspects: prevention and restoration, and formulate the evaluation system and standard system of mine geological environment.
Not long ago, "Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities" clearly demanded that environmental supervision of resource exploitation activities should be strengthened to effectively prevent environmental pollution and ecological damage. Previously, the concept of "ecological civilization" was first put forward in the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The construction of ecological civilization has become a topic of widespread concern in the international community. In 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former US Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in recognition of their efforts to improve the global ecological environment, which is unprecedented and reflects the international community's concern for ecological civilization. At present, the important strategic task of building ecological civilization in China is to strengthen resource conservation and environmental protection. Resource development should also adapt to the new requirements of ecological civilization construction and explore ways and means to effectively protect the ecological environment.
Researcher Zhang, deputy director and consultant of the Consulting and Research Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources, recently conducted theoretical exploration and research on ecological civilization construction, especially the ecological environment protection in the process of resource development. Recently, the reporter interviewed him about the new theories and viewpoints he studied.
First, the new requirements of ecological civilization construction for resource development
Reporter: What are the requirements of ecological civilization construction for resource development?
Zhang: An important content of ecological civilization construction is to build an environment-friendly society and realize the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. At present, China's economic and social development is facing environmental damage caused by resource exploitation, environmental pollution and ecological deterioration caused by economic development. In the process of promoting industrialization, informationization, urbanization, marketization and internationalization, it is a new requirement for the construction of ecological civilization and a new challenge for the construction of a harmonious society to study how to solve the major problems of harmonious coexistence between man and nature in resource development and realize the "compensatory", "circular" and "sustainable" development of the economy and society.
Reporter: Harmony between man and nature is easy to say, but man needs material production, resources development and environment utilization. This contradiction is actually very difficult to solve. ...
Zhang: It's like this. There are three kinds of production in the relationship between man and nature: one is man's own production, that is, population production; Second, social material production, that is, commodity production; The third is the production of natural materials, that is, the reproduction of resources. For a long time, people have not realized that the material production of the whole society is based on natural material production. People only recognize social material production, not natural material production, and often carry out social material production by destroying natural material production.
The results of natural succession show that the ecosystem strives to realize the complex ecological structure and its highest biomass. However, in order to obtain the "maximum yield", that is, the maximum yield of products to meet their own needs, human beings have turned forests, grasslands and swamps into farmland and planted a single plant, which not only simplifies species, but also greatly reduces biomass. For a long time, it not only formed a sharp contradiction between social material production and natural material production, but also destroyed the ecological foundation of the biosphere. Therefore, human activities must be controlled within the limits allowed by the ecosystem.
Every new large-scale development and utilization of natural resources, society must invest new funds for resource protection and implement value compensation to maintain the balance between resource utilization and protection and prevent the fundamental loss of ecological potential.
Reporter: "Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities" points out that it is necessary to establish a compensation mechanism for resource development, guide and standardize various market players to rationally develop resources, and assume responsibilities and obligations in resource compensation, ecological environment protection and restoration. So, what kind of values should be established in resource development?
Zhang: To meet the new requirements of ecological civilization construction, we should establish the concept of respecting natural value in resource development: recognize the value of nature, and all human creations are based on natural value; The essence of the relationship between man and nature is that human beings create and realize cultural values on the basis of natural values; Realizing cultural value by damaging natural value will make human beings go to the point where it is difficult to develop sustainably.
It is impossible to maintain a sound culture when the natural environment is deteriorating. Once the natural environment deteriorates to an irreversible state, culture will inevitably decline rapidly, so we must protect natural values. The exploitation and utilization of natural resources and the transformation from natural value to cultural value do not necessarily take the form of damaging natural value. This requires the use of human wisdom and creativity, which is an important issue of harmonious coexistence between man and nature and an important content of building a harmonious society.
Second, establish a double index system to measure economic and social development.
Reporter: With the rapid development of economy and society, industrialization and urbanization, the task of harmonious coexistence between man and nature is more arduous, and the problem of protecting the ecological environment is more prominent and more difficult to solve. What are the problems in these aspects at the policy level?
Zhang: Natural material resources such as land, water and minerals, and spatial resources such as geological environment and meteorological environment are the elements that constitute the ecological environment. At present, the main problems are that the economic relationship of paid use of natural resources is not straightened out, the management system and operation mechanism of space resources are not perfect, the system of paid use of space resources has not been really established, and the costs of environmental protection and environmental governance have not been fully included in economic accounting. These are the key problems to be solved in protecting the ecological environment.
Reporter: How to solve these problems?
Zhang: First of all, when formulating economic policies to protect the ecological environment, we should change our concepts, raise our awareness, and understand environmental problems from the perspective of people-oriented and satisfying people's quality of life. Secondly, it is necessary to study the law of the occurrence and development of the ecological environment, determine the mechanism of the positive and negative movement of the ecological environment, and formulate strategies to protect the ecological environment. Furthermore, in the planning of economic and social development, it is necessary to establish a dual index system to measure economic and social development. As an important indicator of economic development, GDP is necessary and feasible, but practice has proved that its defects and negative effects are becoming more and more obvious under the new situation of economic and social development. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an index system to measure social development, including quantitative indicators to protect the ecological environment, so as to promote economic and social development and make human existence have both a rich material foundation and a beautiful living environment.
Finally, we should strengthen policy guidance and macro-control and formulate economic policies to protect the ecological environment. First, when making economic and social development plans and plans, determine the rigid constraint indicators for protecting the ecological environment. For example, the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" outline puts forward a rigid constraint index of 10% reduction in the total discharge of major pollutants per unit of GDP, supplemented by corresponding strict assessment methods to ensure the realization of the objectives and tasks. Secondly, in different functional areas of national planning, the indicators of economic development (gross domestic product) and social development are determined respectively, and the development imbalance between regions is adjusted with a dual indicator system; The indicators of economic development (gross domestic product) and social development are determined in urban and rural areas respectively, and the development imbalance between urban and rural areas is adjusted with a dual indicator system. Third, according to the requirements of saving resources and protecting the ecological environment, list the industries that are supported, encouraged, restricted, allowed and prohibited and strictly implement them. Fourthly, establish the system of paid possession and use of ecological environment as space resources, and establish the price formation mechanism of space resources. Fifth, establish a reasonable eco-environmental tax and fee system, and reflect policy orientation such as support and restriction in tax and fee adjustment.
Third, strengthen the theoretical and empirical research of mine environment.
Reporter: Mining mineral resources in resource development is an act that seriously interferes with the environment. What do you think of this?
Zhang: I have been exposed to some cases of mine environment restoration and management in practice, and I have been inspired by them. At present, mineral resources have become the bottleneck of economic and social development, and some people have insufficient understanding of at least two issues: first, they feel pressure on the bottleneck effect of resources, but ignore the bottleneck effect of the environment; Second, there is no concern or plan to study how to achieve a win-win situation in resource development and environmental protection. In the aspect of mine environmental protection in China, there are some problems such as the lack of laws and regulations on mine environmental protection, and the environmental cost has not entered the intermediate cost of mineral products. Fundamentally speaking, human exploitation of mineral resources is an anti-natural activity, which will inevitably pollute and destroy the geological environment and natural environment. Therefore, it is necessary to compensate nature to maintain a harmonious mine environment.
Reporter: What problems should we study in these aspects?
Zhang: First of all, we should strengthen the theoretical research on the influence of mineral resources development on mine geological environment. At present, the research status of mine geological environment is scattered and repetitive, and it is difficult to form a system. From the perspective of management, departments are divided; From the scientific field, the discipline is closed. It is suggested that the competent department should take the lead in launching the centralized and unified research project of mine geological environment, carry out overall design, put forward overall research scheme, integrate Industry-University-Research resources, strength, classified deployment and systematic research. Focus on the impact and destruction of mineral resources development on mine geological environment, study and establish a compensation mechanism for anti-natural activities in the process of resource development, maintain dynamic balance, and strive to achieve a win-win situation for resource development and environmental protection.
Secondly, strengthen the research of mine geological environment prevention and restoration technology. Prevention and repair are two different mechanisms and need different technical methods. At present, the maintenance of mine geological environment mainly focuses on land reclamation and ecological reconstruction, and pays insufficient attention to prevention. The basic research in this field is weak, which affects the research of technical methods. The research of key technologies is not clear, the operability is not strong, and it is scattered and there is no systematic method. Preventive measures should be put forward in advance, as an important part of mine project establishment and design, and systematically arranged in the process of mine development; It is necessary to carry out dynamic monitoring and establish an early warning and forecasting system to make the production system and the prevention system synchronous and orderly.
Reporter: How to apply these studies to the management of mineral resources development?
Zhang: Mine geological environment management needs to establish an evaluation system and a standard system. On the basis of theoretical research, technical method development and typical tests, starting from China's reality and drawing lessons from foreign experience, the evaluation system and standard system of mine geological environment in line with international standards are formulated, and then the relevant laws and regulations for maintaining geological environment are improved and effective policies and measures are formulated.
We should also see that the recovery and treatment of mine environment is gradually attracting the attention of the government and relevant functional departments, and has made some progress. At present, 19 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have officially introduced the deposit system for mine environmental restoration.
(Originally published in China Land and Resources on February 22, 2008, by reporter Ding)