Rural environmental governance should be "protection priority"

In recent years, the problem of environmental pollution and destruction has become more and more serious, and the contradiction between environmental protection and economic development has become increasingly acute. The environmental problem is no longer a regional problem, but a problem restricting the economic development of the whole country. In the face of all kinds of environmental problems, people have more and more doubts about the traditional concept of economic development-whether the extensive mode of economic growth at the expense of the environment should have been eliminated long ago. Should the old management concept of "pollution before treatment" be abandoned a long time ago? In the strong appeal from all walks of life, legislators began to reflect on China's environmental legislation.

Last year, the eighth meeting of the standing Committee of the 12th National people's Congress revised and adopted the Environmental Protection Law of the people's Republic of China. In this revision of the law, the basic principle of environmental protection, the principle of "protection first", is clearly put forward in the law for the first time, which is an eye-catching bright spot and will have a significant and far-reaching impact on the current rural environmental protection work in our country.

In fact, the so-called protection priority is that in the process of economic development, for development and utilization and environmental protection, the environment should be given priority. The new environmental protection law regards protection priority as a principle, and holds that environmental protection should be given priority in the process of development, utilization and economic development, which is a major change in the management thinking of our country. The priority of protection should contain two meanings: one is that environmental protection should take precedence over the development and utilization of resources, and the other is that the principle of environmental priority should be followed when there is an irreconcilable conflict between environment and economic development. it is better to sacrifice economic development than to protect the environment.

"Protection priority" is a concept that runs through the overall situation of environmental legislation. as a basic principle stipulated in the basic law, it can influence the formulation of other environmental legislation and environmental policies. In the new environmental protection law, there are a lot of provisions on rural and agricultural environmental protection, such as Article 33, which requires governments at all levels to strengthen the protection of the agricultural environment, strengthen the monitoring and early warning of agricultural pollution sources, and prevent and control ecological problems; Article 49, prevention and control of waste, waste water, toxic and harmful substances into farmland; Article 50, the government arranges financial funds to support environmental protection work. These regulations all reflect the legislator's idea of "giving priority to protection", that is, for rural areas, environmental protection should take precedence over economic development, and investment in environmental protection should be increased at the beginning of agricultural production.

The reason why the principle of "protection first" has aroused great repercussions in the academic circles and society, it not only has the value as a basic principle, but also has great progressive significance.

First, the establishment of the principle of "protection first" will help to promote the whole society to establish the concept that environmental protection takes precedence over economic development, re-examine the relationship between environment and economic development in the course of development, and promote the transformation of agricultural production mode. As a basic principle, "protection priority" is a weather vane of policy for rural areas. Changes in legal provisions are bound to cause governments, especially those in areas with serious environmental problems, to re-examine the mode of agricultural development. This is the most intuitive progressive significance of the principle of "protection first".

Second, the establishment of the principle of "protection priority" is conducive to promoting the development of environmental protection supervision in our country. Due to the regulation of coordinated economic development of environmental protection in the old environmental protection law, China's environmental regulatory departments often have a laissez-faire attitude towards the behavior of high-benefit enterprises to destroy the environment after weighing the benefits of enterprises and environmental benefits. After the revision of the law, environmental protection takes precedence over economic development, and the level of environmental assessment system will also be improved. For example, issues such as the production and use of pesticides and the treatment of livestock manure will become factors that should be considered in advance in agricultural production.

Third, the establishment of the principle of "protection first" encourages the implementation of environmental public interest litigation in China. At the end of December last year, the Jiangsu High Court heard an environmental public interest lawsuit and finally imposed a fine of 160 million yuan on polluting enterprises, which aroused widespread concern. Although the new environmental protection law had not yet been implemented at that time, judges and environmental protection departments had innovated their ideas and implemented the principle of giving priority to protection. After the implementation of the new environmental protection law, Shandong has also tried two environmental public interest litigation cases. After that, there will be more and more similar public interest litigation cases, which will change the social development and public concept more directly.

In view of the principle of "protection first", there may be some problems, such as the meaning of oath is greater than the actual significance, it is difficult to implement it, and the judicial discretion may be reduced. If we want to do a better job in environmental and ecological protection under the guidance of this principle, on the one hand, we should formulate a series of detailed rules to implement the priority of protection, on the other hand, we should avoid the extremism that gives priority to protection, and should not turn protection into conservativity. without development or retrogression for the sake of protection.

The principle of priority of protection reflects the change of the concept of environmental protection in China, is a major institutional innovation, and is of guiding significance for changing the thinking of environmental protection in rural areas. We should deeply understand its connotation and denotation, make laws and policies under the guidance of this principle, and let it play a greater and more active role in the environmental protection of our country.