New opportunities for grassland protection and construction

Recently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "opinions on accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization" (hereinafter referred to as "opinions"), which is an important measure to implement the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress and the third and fourth Plenary sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee. it is also a strategic plan based on China's national conditions. The construction of ecological civilization is related to the well-being of the people and the future of the nation, and is an important part of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, Chinese Dream. The "opinion" is the first document issued by the Central Committee on the construction of ecological civilization, which fully reflects that the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as its general secretary attaches great importance to the construction of ecological civilization. it is of great significance for promoting economic transformation and upgrading, promoting social harmony, building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and safeguarding global health and security.

The "opinion" makes detailed arrangements for the main objectives, priorities of work, and system construction of China's grassland protection and construction at present and for a period of time in the future. The "opinion" proposes to increase the intensity of returning grazing to grassland, continue to implement the policy of subsidies and incentives for grassland ecological protection, increase grassland vegetation coverage, and increase grassland carbon sequestration. By 2020, the comprehensive vegetation coverage of grasslands in China will reach 56%. We will speed up the demarcation and protection of basic grasslands, scientifically delineate the ecological red line of grasslands, and revise the grassland Law. We will strictly implement the system of banning grazing, resting grazing and balancing grass and livestock, stabilize and improve the system of contracted management of grasslands, make unified registration of the rights of natural ecological spaces such as grasslands, clarify the owners, regulators and responsibilities of natural resources assets in land and space, and accelerate the building of statistical monitoring and accounting capacity of grasslands. Among them, grassland comprehensive vegetation coverage, as an important binding index, has been established in the document of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, in order to consolidate the current good momentum of grassland ecological protection and construction, to restrain governments at all levels to sacrifice grassland resources in exchange for short-term development behavior, orderly promote grassland damage compensation, accountability and other key systems of ecological civilization to provide strong support, of great significance and far-reaching impact.

The environment is the people's livelihood, the green hills are beautiful, and the blue sky is happiness. The area of grassland in China is nearly 400 million hectares, accounting for about 2% of the total land area. As the largest terrestrial ecosystem in China and one of the main vegetation of "two screens and three belts" in the 12th five-year Plan, grassland has irreplaceable important functions in water conservation, wind prevention and sand fixation, carbon and nitrogen storage and maintenance of biodiversity. It is the main battlefield of ecological civilization construction. Grassland is the source and water conservation area of rivers in China. The Yangtze River, Yellow River, Lancang River, Liaohe River and Heilongjiang River are all in the grassland. For grasslands with good vegetation coverage, the surface sediment transport is only 1% of that of quicksand, and the near-surface wind speed can be reduced by 50%. The grassland ecosystem can fix 520 million tons of carbon per year, equivalent to 1.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which can offset about 30 per cent of China's total carbon dioxide emissions. There are 18 types of grasslands in China, with more than 17000 animal and plant species, which is an important "gene bank" for maintaining biodiversity in China. The important ecological status and functions of grasslands require us to understand and treat grasslands from the strategic perspective of safeguarding national ecological security and realizing the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, and further enhance our understanding of the importance of grassland protection and construction. we should closely keep up with the general trend of the construction of ecological civilization, make great efforts to consolidate the achievements of grassland protection and construction, and take advantage of the situation to improve the construction of grassland protection system.

In the future, government managers, enterprise operators, and the broad masses of farmers and herdsmen should all be part of the construction of ecological civilization, strictly in accordance with the requirements of the "opinions," and firmly establish the concept of respecting, conforming to, and protecting nature. we should do a good job in grassland ecological protection with the idea of system engineering, and promote the construction of grassland legal system in accordance with the requirements of grass control according to law. We will continue to implement the grassland ecological protection construction project, consolidate the effect of grassland compensation policy, stabilize and improve the grassland contract management system, and implement grassland protection systems such as basic grassland protection, rotational grazing and grass-livestock balance in grazing areas, study and delineate the ecological red line of grassland, speed up the legislative process of the basic regulations on grassland Protection, study and establish a compensation system for grassland ecological damage, and constantly speed up the construction of grassland ecological civilization. We will strive to create a new era of grassland protection and construction, and make new and greater contributions to building a beautiful China and building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.