The environment is a vital part of human life. People breathe air, drink water, and rely on arable lands to grow food. However, in areas of industry and dense urban growth, the environment often becomes polluted. The air becomes difficult to breathe. The water contains contaminants too harmful to drink. The soil yields less food to eat. Humans exposed to these polluted environments often suffer a wide range of ailments. One of those is cancer.
China has experienced rapid growth in the past years, and its environment isn’t in the best shape. Thankfully, the government not only has existing laws to improve the environment, but has set goals going forward. The largest of these goals are held in the recently proposed 13th Five Year Plan, but significant goals lie elsewhere as well.
China’s 13th Five Year Plan stretches between the years 2016 to 2020. It’s pretty ambitious, particularly regarding environmental improvement. Each new Five Year Plan contains a series of social and economic development initiatives designed to combine long and short term goals, deal with current challenges, and resolve long-term problems. When backed with the law, enforcement mechanisms, and financial support, these plans guide China’s future. Plan number thirteen is no exception.
Of the highlighted thirty-two proposals of China’s 13th Five Year Plan, two focus on agricultural reform. Proposal 17 is dedicated to improving water quality, calling for the “strictest management system for water resources to be implemented and a national monitoring system established for groundwater”. Number 18 focuses on the air, requiring a “nationwide real-time online environmental monitoring system to be set up and an emission permit system will cover all companies with stationary pollution sources”.
Finally, proposal 19 is about China’s greenery, calling for the “Forest protection plan to be improved, with commercial deforestation banned and forested areas increased. The amount of land returned to farmland and forest areas are to be expanded and pasture protection improved.”
This isn’t the first ban on deforestation in China. Commercial deforestation had been banned previously in national forests and in the extreme northeast portion of China near the Hinggan Mountains. Considered a world leader in afforestation, China’s focus has been on planting trees rather than cutting them down. So while a complete ban on deforestation might seem unusual, this is likely a goal that China has been working towards for some time.
Goals for the year 2020 are being made outside China’s 13th Five Year Plan as well. Related to the focus on agricultural reform and an increase in greenery, it has been stated that China is determined to clean up 90% of polluted arable land by 2020. Approximately 16% of surveyed lands in China are polluted by heavy metals like cadmium, arsenic, lead and mercury. Additionally, an approximate 19% of surveyed arable land had pollution levels higher than the national standard, which means almost 3.33 million hectares of arable land are not suitable for growing crops. If 90% of these lands are remediated by 2020, that would be almost three million hectares of land able to be used for agricultural production.
China has proposed ambitious goals for improving the country’s environment. In a country where people can’t drink the tap water before boiling it and have to be plan their outdoor exposure according to the quality of the air, these are eagerly welcomed goals. Some might fear they are unobtainable. Yet, with the establishment and enforcement of related laws, and a healthy dose of financial support, these goals might very well become realities.