China to draw up ecological ‘red lines’ to curb development in bid to go green
All provinces and regions ordered to mark out protected zones by 2020 in face of pollution woes and land, water shortages
China has ordered all its provinces and regions to establish “ecological red lines” that will put large parts of the country off-limits to development, state media has said, part of its efforts to conserve resources and improve the environment.
In a policy document published by state news agency Xinhua late on Tuesday, China’s cabinet said all regions were under instruction to decide on their “red lines” before 2020.
The heavily industrialised region of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in northern China, as well as the Yangtze River delta manufacturing hub near Shanghai, have been ordered to demarcate their protected zones by the end of 2018, the document said.
Breakneck rates of industrialisation and urbanisation have left China with profound land and water shortages, as well as rising rates of desertification and serious pollution problems.
Plans to draw up “ecological red lines” were first announced in 2011, when it was said that decades of “irrational development” had put China’s environment under severe strain.