Ecological environment zoning control is an important measure to enhance the modernization level of ecological environment governance, with the goal of ensuring ecological functions and improving environmental quality. It implements a differentiated and precise environmental management system in different regions. Implementing ecological environment zoning control, strictly adhering to the ecological protection red line, environmental quality bottom line, and resource utilization online, scientifically guiding various development and protection construction activities, is of great significance for promoting high-quality development and building a modern harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. In order to strengthen the zoning control of the ecological environment, with the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, the following opinions are hereby proposed.
1、 Overall requirements
——Ecological priority and green development. Adhere to respecting, conforming to, and protecting nature, safeguard the boundaries of natural ecological security and the bottom line of environmental quality, implement the responsibility of natural ecological security, and promote green and low-carbon development.
——Source prevention, system protection. Establish a sound ecological environment prevention system at the source, coordinate the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, and sands, strengthen biodiversity protection, and enhance the coordinated control of multiple pollutants and regional governance.
——Accurate and scientific, and legally controlled. Focusing on regional and watershed prominent ecological and environmental issues, implementing precise and scientific policies, and establishing a zoning, classification, and control strategy from problem identification to solution in accordance with laws and regulations.
——Clarify responsibilities and coordinate linkage. At the national level, top-level design should be done well, local party committees and governments should implement their main responsibilities, relevant departments should strengthen communication and coordination, establish a mechanism for division of labor and cooperation, and improve policy unity, rule consistency, and execution coordination.
By 2025, the ecological environment zoning control system will be basically established, and a comprehensive, precise and scientific ecological environment zoning control system will be preliminarily formed. By 2035, a comprehensive ecological environment zoning and control system with a sound system, smooth mechanisms, and efficient operation will be established, providing strong support for the fundamental improvement of the ecological environment and the basic realization of the goal of a beautiful China.
2、 Comprehensively promote the zoning and control of ecological environment
（1） Develop an ecological environment zoning control plan. Deepen the implementation of the main functional zone strategy, fully implement the National Land and Space Planning Outline (2021-2035), and formulate an ecological environment zoning control plan with a focus on implementing the ecological protection red line, environmental quality bottom line, and resource utilization online hard constraints, based on ecological environment control units, using ecological environment access lists as means, and supported by information platforms. Adhere to the principles of national guidance, provincial coordination, and municipal implementation, and compile and publish ecological environment zoning control plans within the administrative region at different levels. The ecological environment zoning control plan at the provincial and municipal levels shall be organized and prepared by the same level government, fully integrating with the national spatial planning "one map" system, and submitted to the higher-level ecological environment management department for record before being released and implemented.
（2） Determine the ecological environment control unit. based on the regional characteristics such as ecological environment structure, function, and quality, and through environmental assessment, on the basis of the management zoning of various ecological environment elements such as atmosphere, water, soil, ecology, sound, and ocean, the results of the "three zones and three lines" delineation are implemented. based on the ecological protection red line, the protected area is delineated to determine the priority protection unit of the ecological environment; Focusing on areas with high pressure to improve ecological environment quality, high intensity of resource and energy consumption, concentrated pollutant emissions, severe ecological damage, and high environmental risks, identifying areas with prominent contradictions between development and protection, and determining key ecological environment control units; General control shall be implemented in areas other than ecological environment priority protection units and ecological environment key control units.
（3） Develop an ecological environment access list. Implement a negative list of market access, focus on addressing prominent ecological and environmental issues based on the positioning of ecological environment functions and the requirements for land use control, systematically integrate existing ecological and environmental management regulations, accurately compile a differentiated ecological and environmental access list, and propose requirements for controlling pollutant emissions, preventing environmental risks, and improving resource and energy utilization efficiency. Implementing refined management of "one unit, one strategy" according to local conditions, prioritizing the protection of the ecological environment, strengthening ecosystem protection and functional maintenance, strengthening pollutant emission control and environmental risk prevention in key ecological environment control units, and maintaining basic stability of ecological environment quality in other regions. More precise control requirements should be formulated for areas with high pressure, prominent problems, and risks in improving ecological environment quality.
（4） Strengthen the sharing of information on ecological environment zoning control. Promote the information sharing and business collaboration between the national and provincial ecological environment zoning control system and other business systems, strengthen the supporting role of data management, adjustment and update, implementation and application, tracking and evaluation, and supervision and management. Promote the integration and innovation of new generation information technology, artificial intelligence, and ecological environment zoning control, improve online government services and intelligent decision-making functions, and enhance service efficiency.
（5） Coordinate regular adjustments and dynamic updates. The ecological environment zoning and control plan should be stable in principle, and adjusted regularly every 5 years based on the evaluation of national economic and social development plans and national spatial planning. If it is necessary to update within 5 years, according to the principle of "whoever releases, whoever updates", dynamic updates will be carried out on the basis of fully connecting national economic and social development plans and national spatial planning, and reported to the higher-level ecological and environmental management department for record. For updates due to changes in major strategies, ecological and environmental protection goals, scientific argumentation should be organized; If legally protected areas such as ecological protection red lines, drinking water source protection areas, and nature reserves are established, adjusted, or merged in accordance with laws and regulations, and there are new provisions in laws and regulations, they shall be updated synchronously accordingly.
3、 Boosting high-quality economic and social development
（6） Serve major national strategies. Through ecological environment zoning control, strengthening overall protection and systematic governance, supporting and optimizing the layout of major productive forces, serving the construction of major national infrastructure, and ensuring the implementation of major national strategies. Implement the development strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, promote fine zoning and control of the entire Yangtze River basin according to units, strengthen the prevention and control of water pollution and environmental risks in heavy chemical industries along the river, and prevent heavy polluting enterprises and projects from transferring to the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Implement the strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, implement differentiated zoning control in the upstream, midstream, and downstream regions, optimize the layout of energy, chemical, and new energy industries in the upstream and midstream of the Yellow River, and promote green, low-carbon, and circular development of industries in the middle and downstream regions. Strengthening the application of ecological environment zoning control in the industrial, energy, and transportation structure adjustment of the Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, establishing a land shore sea linkage and regional integration ecological environment control mechanism, guiding the green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry and the rational layout of strategic emerging industries.
（7） Promote green and low-carbon development. Implement relevant systems and policy requirements for national high energy consumption, high emissions, and low-level project management, guide key industries to scientifically layout and orderly transfer to regions with large environmental capacity, strong market demand, and good market guarantee conditions. Strengthen the management of key ecological and environmental control units, promote the green and low-carbon transformation, upgrading, and clean production transformation of traditional industries such as petrochemicals, steel, and building materials. Improve the construction of environmental infrastructure in industrial parks, promote industrial agglomeration development and centralized pollution control. Connect the ecological environment access list and guide the orderly evacuation of traditional industrial functional spaces in central urban areas with high population density. Optimize the management of ecological environment priority protection units, encourage the exploration of ecological product value realization models and paths, and enhance ecological carbon sequestration capacity. On the premise of ensuring the diversity, stability, and sustainability of the ecosystem, support the construction of national major strategies, major infrastructure, and livelihood guarantee projects. Implement the construction of large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases in desert, Gobi, and desert areas.
（8） Support comprehensive decision-making. Strengthen the application of ecological environment zoning control achievements to provide decision-making support for local party committees and governments. Taking the effectiveness evaluation of ecological environment zoning control as an important basis for optimizing environmental impact assessment management. Strengthen the guidance of ecological environment zoning control on enterprise investment, set up public access permissions on the ecological environment zoning control information platform in accordance with laws and regulations, facilitate enterprise analysis of project compliance with ecological environment zoning control requirements, and stimulate the development vitality of business entities.
4、 Implementing high-level protection of the ecological environment
（9） Maintain the ecological security pattern. Strictly implement the ecological protection red line control requirements. Focusing on ecological protection red lines, improving ecosystem quality, enhancing ecosystem stability and service functions. Strengthen biodiversity protection and improve the biodiversity protection network. Strengthen monitoring and early warning, actively adapt to climate change. Identify prominent environmental issues in key areas such as the ecological barrier zone of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, the key ecological zone of the Yellow River, the key ecological zone of the Yangtze River, the northeast forest zone, the northern sand prevention zone, the southern hilly and mountainous area, and the coastal zone, and implement differentiated environmental governance and control requirements.
（10） Promote environmental quality improvement. Strengthen the implementation of ecological environment zoning control, form a closed loop of problem identification, precise traceability, and zoning policy implementation, promote the resolution of prominent ecological environment problems, prevent structural and layout environmental risks, and free up capacity and expand space for high-quality development. Deepen the zoning and control of water environment in the watershed, coordinate the management of water resources, water environment, and water ecology, strengthen the management of important water ecological spaces such as water source conservation areas, rivers, lakes, and their buffer zones within the watershed, and strengthen the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution. Strengthen the zoning and control of the ecological environment in nearshore waters, and promote the management of key estuaries and bays through land and sea coordination. Taking into account the transmission laws of atmospheric regions and the sensitivity of spatial layout, we will strengthen the differentiated collaborative control of zoning classification. According to the degree of soil pollution and relevant standards, implement classification management of agricultural land and access management of construction land. Strengthen sound environment management, promote the coordination of land layout between large-scale transportation infrastructure, industrial concentration areas, and noise sensitive building concentration areas. Explore the zoning and control mode for groundwater pollution prevention and control, coordinate the above ground and underground, and formulate differentiated ecological environment access and pollution risk control requirements.
（11） Strengthen the coordination of ecological and environmental protection policies. Give full play to the fundamental role of ecological environment zoning control in the source prevention system, and achieve refined management with full coverage, cross departmental collaboration, and multi factor integration. Strengthening the dynamic connection between ecological environment zoning control and national spatial planning, focusing on the improvement of ecological environment quality according to the characteristics of development, protection and construction activities in different regions, implementing differentiated ecological environment management in different units. The ecological environment management department and natural resources management department should select typical areas to carry out pilot projects, accumulate experience, improve mechanisms, and form policy synergy. Carry out collaborative pilot projects for ecological environment zoning control, pollution reduction, and carbon reduction, and study and implement differentiated control policies based on carbon emissions, pollutant emissions, and other factors. Strengthen the coordination between policies related to ecological environment protection and the ecological environment zoning control system, and incorporate the requirements for ecological environment zoning control into the formulation and revision of relevant ecological environment standards and policies. Encourage various regions to focus on industrial parks, free trade pilot zones, etc., and carry out pilot reforms for coordinated linkage of ecological environment zoning control and environmental impact assessment, pollution discharge permits, environmental monitoring, law enforcement supervision, etc., exploring the construction of a full chain ecological environment management system.
5、 Strengthen supervision and assessment
（12） Strengthen supervision and management. Relevant departments should, in accordance with their respective responsibilities and relying on relevant regulatory platforms, fully utilize technologies such as big data, satellite remote sensing, and drones to carry out dynamic monitoring, conduct on-site inspections of prominent problems and risk hazards discovered, and strictly investigate and deal with them in accordance with the law. Strengthen supervision and law enforcement for ecological environment priority protection units with significantly reduced ecological functions, ecological environment key control units with prominent ecological environment problems, and other areas with significantly decreased environmental quality, and promote rectification within a specified period in accordance with the law and regulations. Incorporate prominent issues in the implementation of the ecological environment zoning control system into central and provincial ecological environment protection inspections.
（13） Improve assessment and evaluation. The implementation of ecological environment zoning control will be included in the effectiveness assessment of pollution prevention and control, and the assessment results will serve as an important reference for the comprehensive assessment, reward and punishment appointment and removal of local leadership teams and relevant leaders. The competent ecological and environmental department of the State Council, together with relevant departments, tracks and understands the implementation of work, and the effectiveness of work serves as an important reference for the construction of the "Green Waters and Green Mountains are Gold and Silver Mountains" practical innovation base.
6、 Organizational support
（14） Strengthen organizational leadership. Adhere to the leadership of the Party in ecological environment zoning and control work. Local party committees and governments at all levels should strictly implement the principle of "party and government share the same responsibility, and one position has dual responsibilities" for ecological environment protection, improve the work promotion mechanism, regularly study the zoning and control of ecological environment, regularly promote sharing and sharing, adjustment and updating, and supervision and implementation, timely report on important work progress, and form a good pattern of linkage between the upper and lower levels, each performing their own duties, and joint management. Each region can develop supporting documents based on actual conditions.
（15） Strengthen departmental linkage. The competent department of ecological environment under the State Council shall, in conjunction with relevant departments, formulate and improve policies related to ecological environment zoning and control. The development and reform departments should actively promote the full connection between the achievements of ecological environment zoning control and the formulation and implementation of national economic and social development related plans and regional plans. The natural resources regulatory authorities should rely on the "one map" system of national spatial planning, share ecological protection red lines and other data, strengthen the connection between ecological environment zoning control plans and national spatial planning, and jointly carry out relevant research and pilot work. The water administrative department is responsible for water resource management, water area shoreline management, and other related work, implementing differentiated water resource management, reasonably controlling the scale of water resource development and utilization, and linking with ecological environment zoning and control. The forestry and grassland authorities should strengthen the coordination and linkage between the management of various nature reserves and the zoning control of the ecological environment. The relevant departments in charge of industry and information technology, housing and urban-rural construction, transportation, agriculture and rural areas should strengthen the coordination and linkage between relevant work in this field and ecological environment zoning control according to their respective responsibilities. When formulating industry development and development policies and plans, they should fully consider the requirements for ecological environment zoning control and reduce negative impacts on ecosystem functions and environmental quality. Relevant departments should introduce policies that are conducive to the implementation and application of ecological environment zoning control, and promote the coordination and linkage of ecological environment zoning control supervision and law enforcement.
（16） Improve regulatory standards. Promote the inclusion of ecological environment zoning control requirements in the formulation and revision of relevant laws and regulations. Encourage local authorities with legislative power to research and formulate local regulations related to ecological environment zoning and control. The competent department of ecological environment under the State Council, in conjunction with the competent department of natural resources, shall study and formulate requirements for the division of ecological environment zoning control units and relevant standards and specifications.
（17） Strengthen capacity building. Strengthen the construction of relevant disciplines, scientific research, and talent cultivation in the field of ecological environment zoning and control, and accelerate the establishment of specialized teams. Improve the construction of an information platform for ecological environment zoning and control. Financial departments at all levels should comprehensively consider their work goals and tasks, and implement financial guarantees in accordance with the principles of fiscal authority and expenditure responsibility division.
（18） Actively promote and guide. Incorporate ecological environment zoning control into the education and training content of party and government leaders. Strengthen publicity and interpretation, timely summarize and promote positive examples, expose negative cases, and create a good atmosphere of widespread attention and joint participation from the whole society.