The Poster News APP:

Hello, Mr. Huang, every summer, many people choose to go to the seaside for vacation. The quality of seawater and the marine environment area matter of general concern. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, may I ask what work China has carried out in marine ecological and environmental protection, and what results have been achieved? What will be the focus of the next step? Thank you.

Huang Runqiu:

Thank you for your questions. The sea is a strategic place for high-quality development. Protecting the marine environment is significant for promoting high-quality development in coastal areas and building a harmonious relationship between humankind and the sea. General Secretary Xi Jinpingemphasized that we must attach great importance to developing a marine eco-civilization. This involves strengthening the prevention and control of marine environmental pollution, protecting marine biodiversity, realizing the orderly development and utilization of marine resources, and leaving a blue sea and blue sky for future generations. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the main achievements of China's marine environmental protection can be summarized in four "new" characteristics:

First, a new pattern has been formed in the integrated land-sea governance system. In 2018, the responsibility for marine environmental protection was integrated into the MEE, combining the protection of both land and sea. We resolutely implement the reform of Party and government institutions, set up three supervision institutions for basin and marine environment in different sea areas, and established coordination mechanisms with relevant departments in marine environment monitoring and evaluation, supervision and law enforcement, protection and governance. Eleven coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and related municipal and county-level environment departments have also re-established marine ecological and environmental protection agencies, forming a new work pattern of coordinating land and sea protection, as well as coordination and cooperation across different levels.

Second, the quality of the marine environment has seen new improvements. We have further promoted the prevention and control of pollution in offshore areas, and the marine environment has been significantly improved. In the past 10years, among the rivers entering the sea which have national-level water-quality monitoring sections, 71.7% of water sections were graded in categories I-III, up 25 percentage points. The proportion of water sections graded as inferior category V decreased by 24 percentage points to 0.4%. The balance of excellent water quality in offshore areas across the country increased by about 17.6 percentage points to 81.3%. We have made great efforts to improve the water environment of the Bohai Sea region. All 30 tasks with established time frames have been completed with high quality, and the ecological environment of the Bohai Sea region has been significantly improved. We continue to promote the building of beautiful bays, and scenes of beautiful bays with clean water, clean beaches, schools of fish and flocks of gulls, and harmonious relationships between the sea and people have continued to emerge. Lingshan Bay in Qingdao city, Shandong province, has renovated 30kilometers of coastline for visitors and citizens to appreciate the sea. It is a magnificent transformation.

Third, marine environment management and protection efficiency has achieved a new leap forward. Since the institutional reform, we have promoted optimizing and integrating the land-sea monitoring network and gradually built a marine environment monitoring network based on 1,359 national-level monitoring sites. We have further improved the marine environment supervision system. All coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have comprehensively cleaned up sewage outfalls into seas. Nearly 19,000 sewage outfalls have been reviewed in the Bohai Sea region. All localities have also continued to strengthen the supervision of the marine aquaculture ecological environment and the management of marine garbage. Fujian province's Ningde city focused on the green transformation of marine aquaculture, upgrading traditional foam net cages to environment-friendly plastic net cages, significantly reducing fishery waste and transforming the sea garbage dump in the past into a beautiful idyllic "sea garden."

We, together with relevant departments, continue to strengthen marine ecological protection and restoration. Up to now, the marine ecological protection red lines of 11 coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have all been delineated, and a total of 145 marine nature reserves have been established nationwide, with a total area of about 7.91 million hectares. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, we have improved and restored 1,200 kilometers of coastline and 23,000 hectares of coastal wetlands. By 2021, all 24 marine ecosystems included in the monitoring had largely recovered from an "unhealthy" state.

Fourth, a new mechanism for marine environment surveillance and law enforcement has been formed. We have made greater efforts to ensure that  responsibilities for marine environment governance are fulfilled. Since 2015, the environmental inspections carried out by the central government have revealed more than 150 salient problems concerning marine environment and we have urged local governments to make effective rectifications. We continue to strengthen law enforcement for marine environmental protection. In recent years, we have cooperated with the China Coast Guard and other departments to carry out special surveillance and law enforcement actions such as "Blue Sea," which has formed a solid deterrent to violations of laws and regulations related to the marine environment.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we will work with relevant departments and coastal localities to focus on building beautiful bays as the main task and the improvement of the marine environment as the priority, improve the environment in key sea areas. We will work to advance the management of bays with a holistic approach and tailored measures, continue to improve our capacity for coordinated protection of land and sea.We will promote high-quality economic development in coastal areas with high-level marine environment protection. Thank you.

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