The Legislation Research On Wetland Protection In China

We can comprehend the concept of wetland in both broad and narrow sense. In itsnarrow sense, wetland refers to the transition area from waters to lands on the earth. Itshould contain three parts as follows: saturated water or shallow water, hydromorphicsoil, and aquatic vegetation. In its broad sense, as is described in "Ramsar Convention",the land which contains the major hydromorphic conditions of the three above can becalled wetland. At present most countries accept the concept of wetland in "RamsarConvention". As a special type of land resources, wetland is a transition ecological system fromwaters to lands on the earth, which has very high economic, ecological and social value.So the world pays more and more attention to the protection and reasonable use ofwetland. The wetland area in China is vast , with diverse types. China is covered bywetland from the cold temperate zone to the tropics, from the coast to the interior, fromthe plain to the plateau. However, in recent years, the wetland area in our country hasbeen reducing sharply, and the wetland pollution getting serious day by day. Therefore,the author analyzed the current state of management and legislation of wetlandprotection in China, in order to find out the causes of the existing problems. By analyzing the current state of management and legislation in China, the authorthinks that the in-depth reasons of wetland problems lie in the system root:one is themalfunctions of market, the other that of government. In addition, the flaws also exist inthe wetland management and legislation aspects. The wetland management mainly hastwo problems:one is the chaotic administration system, the other is the layer on layerresistance on the administrative law enforcement. The main problems in the wetlandlegislation are as follows: Firstly, the connotation and extension of the wetland legal concept is neither clearnor unified. Secondly, it lacks the systematic characteristic and integrity, and does notshow the values which the wetland really possesses of. Thirdly, the coordinationbetween the laws and regulations is insufficient and the department jurisdiction is notdistinct. Forthly, the local laws and regulations have many problems. For instance, thelicensing system neglects the ecological function protection for wetland. The monitorsystem and the environmental effect appraisal system of wetland are still not sound.To resolve the above problems, the author thinks that China should make a speciallegislation for protecting wetland. In the special legislation, we should take theprinciples, such as ecology first, sustainably using, planning overall and acting ascircumstances permission, the harm and risk prevention, the environment responsibilityand so on, as the basic principles of the law. What is more, we should stipulate somebasic systems, such as the wetland resources paid use system, the wetlandenvironmental effect appraisal system, the wetland resources examination andpermission system, the loss compensation system for the person of interest, thesafeguard system for using the wetland ecology water, the wetland investigation andmonitor system and so on. In addition, we should fully understand the concept ofwetland, consider the wetland ecological as a unity, make clear the wetlandadministration department and its responsibility and the land ownership of wetlandprotective area.