The Ministry of Natural Resources introduced today (4th) that at the ongoing China-Island Countries Marine Cooperation Forum, the Island Research Center of the Ministry of Natural Resources released the "Phase Results Report on the Construction of China and the United States Islands." The report pointed out that after three years of construction, the ecological safety barrier of my country's first batch of 33 Hemei islands has been further strengthened, the livability level has been further improved, the island's green and shared wealth industry transformation has begun to show scale, and the disaster prevention and reduction capabilities have been further improved.
Data show that in the past three years, more than 70% of the damaged island ecological areas have been repaired, half of the Hemei islands have accounted for more than 60% of clean energy consumption, 30 Hemei islands have a drinking water safety coverage rate of more than 90%, and more than 30 national and provincial marine ranch demonstration zones have been built.
Chongming Island, Dongtou Island, Meizhou Island, Nan'ao Island... there are more than 11,000 islands scattered throughout my country's vast seas. These islands play an important role in strengthening the marine economy and protecting the marine environment. Affected by the special geographical location, the island ecosystem is relatively fragile, the infrastructure conditions are relatively weak, and the problem of unbalanced and inadequate economic development is also more prominent. How to allow islands to maintain their ecological foundation and achieve high-quality development is an important issue facing my country's island protection and development. Li Wenjun, deputy director of the Department of Sea Areas and Island Management of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that in order to promote high-level protection and high-quality development of islands, the Ministry of Natural Resources will launch a demonstration project for the creation of Harmony Islands in 2022, and the first batch of 33 Harmony Islands will be selected in 2023.
On Dongyu Island, Qionghai City, Hainan Province, where the Boao Forum is held, the local area has integrated and applied 57 low-carbon technologies in eight major areas, including renewable energy utilization, green building renovation, and transportation electrification, to achieve self-balancing of new energy power generation and electricity consumption. At present, the regional carbon emissions have been completely cleared from 11,300 tons/year in the base year, and it has obtained the "Zero-Carbon Operation Regional Certification" from the German Energy Agency, contributing the "Boao Standard" to the zero-carbon construction of tropical islands around the world. In addition, Li Wenjun introduced that in the past three years, various Hemei islands have continued to make up for the shortcomings in island infrastructure, promoted improvements in water, electricity, communications, transportation and public services, and comprehensively improved island community governance capabilities.
What industries are suitable for development on Hemei Island? The report shows that in the past three years, these islands have promoted the transformation and upgrading of traditional fisheries "according to island conditions" and built more than 30 national and provincial marine ranch demonstration areas. They have created ecological breeding models such as shellfish and algae cultivation, three-dimensional polyculture, and deep-sea intelligent cages, and explored ways to achieve synergy between ecological protection and production efficiency. Li Wenjun said that adapting measures to local conditions and green development are important directions for the construction of Hemei Island.
Since islands often face the impact of marine disasters and are located at the forefront of disaster prevention and reduction, it is crucial to improve resilience and enhance safety capabilities. The report shows that in the past three years, various islands have actively invested in implementing a series of geological hazard investigation and management projects, carrying out dock reinforcement, disaster-causing dike removal, ecological seawall construction and reconstruction, landslide emergency management, etc., and exploring the construction of an ecological disaster reduction pattern that integrates "beach buffering-bank protection-mountain stabilization". Through sand dune restoration, beach maintenance, pebble pond dam reinforcement, backshore vegetation reconstruction and other systematic methods, the level of marine disaster prevention has been improved. Li Wenjun said that only by integrating the concept of resilience into the entire process of island governance can islands better cope with the challenges brought about by natural risks and climate change.
