City goes green with 44% of protected area
Print Edition
SHANGHAI will earmark about 4,364 square kilometers, or some 44 percent of the city’s land mass, as protected green areas, the city’s top planning body announced yesterday.
The protected areas will mainly include natural reserve, water source, forest parks, mountains, forest, wet land and rivers, the Shanghai Planning, Land and Resources Administration said yesterday.
About 96 square kilometers, or 1.5 percent of the city’s land area, has been declared top protected area, meaning no developmental work will be allowed in this space, the administration said.
The city’s per-capita ecological area is decreasing and even lags behind the national average.
The average public green space is 7.1 square meters per person, compared to 12.6 square meters elsewhere in urban China.
The ecological area only accounts for 55 percent of the city’s total territory. Besides, the city’s air, soil and water environment are also not in the acceptable zone, the administration said.
“Nearly all valuable ecological land across the city are within the protected red line,” said Shi Jiaming, deputy director of the administration.
The top protected areas include the Qingcaosha Reservoir, the city’s main tap water source, the east beach of the Chongming Island, the Jiuduansha Island near Chongming and the Dianshanhu Lake.
Violators will be punished as per the various national and city laws.
In the rest of the protected area, only essential infrastructure projects relating to the daily life of the local residents will be permitted.
“There will be no industrial or commercial projects at all,” Shi told a local television station.
“Strict evaluation of environment and public hearings will be held before any infrastructure project is permitted in the protected area,” he said.
The 3.78-square-kilometer Pujiang Forest near Minpu Bridge in Minhang District was previously picked by many developers as an ideal location for real estate projects.
But now the forest cover comes under secondary protected area, meaning all developers will have to drop their projects.
Authorities will also begin demolishing illegal constructions in the protected areas to provide more ecological spaces for the residents.
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