The era of ecological civilization calls for resource management innovation.

Editor's Note Entering the Classroom: During the National People's Congress, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council pointed out in his government work report of 20 12 that the key to solving the unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable problems in development lies in accelerating the transformation of economic development mode, and explicitly requested to promote energy conservation, emission reduction and ecological environment protection, promote ecological construction, and promote ecological protection and restoration. Land and resources work supports all walks of life and affects generations to come. In the era of ecological civilization, solving the dilemma of "ensuring development and protecting resources" has become an important issue that must be solved in land and resources management. Only by innovating the value theory of resources and environment and coordinating the development and utilization mode of resources and environment can the sustainable development of economy and society be guaranteed by the sustainable utilization of resources and environment.

In this big class, researcher Zhang, deputy director of the Land and Resources Consulting and Research Center, was invited to systematically explain the theory of resource and environment value in the era of ecological civilization, and put forward to promote the reform and innovation of land and resources management with the balance of ecological value and productivity value of resources and environment as the core.

Q: How did the concept of "ecological civilization era" come into being?

A: Marked by the level of productive forces, the process of human civilization has gone through three periods: fishing and hunting civilization, farming civilization and industrial civilization. Although the process of civilization is different in different periods and regions, with the progress of information technology and the globalization of economic development, human civilization has gradually merged and converged. The development of human civilization promotes the development of productive forces, but it also brings ecological and environmental problems. The integrity of the natural environment determines the global nature of eco-environmental problems, which makes countries at different stages of development face severe challenges of eco-environmental protection and sustainable economic and social development. Therefore, changing the development mode and alleviating the contradiction between man and land have become the common aspiration of mankind.

1987 The word "sustainable development" was first put forward in the report "Our Common Future" of the World Commission on Environment and Development. 1992 Agenda of Rio de Janeiro Conference on Environment and Development 2 1 century formally put forward the concept of sustainable development, marking the arrival of a new era of human civilization-the era of ecological civilization.

Q: What are the characteristics of ecological civilization?

A: In the era of ecological civilization, human beings pay more attention to the inherent laws of the existence and development of nature itself, change human self-centered thinking and behavior, and regard nature as an equal subject with human beings in the ecosystem, not just the object of labor. Therefore, the development model of ecological civilization era is based on the equality, health and sustainable development of social and natural ecological environment. The form of civilization is not only reflected in the material, spiritual and institutional achievements of human society, but also in the existence and development of natural resources and environment. This kind of civilization that regards ecological sustainable development as equally important as the sustainable development of human society and promotes ecological sustainable development in the construction of human civilization is called ecological civilization. Therefore, the construction of ecological civilization should be based on natural resources and environment, with science and technology as the means. While creating and enjoying social wealth, we will promote the circulation, renewal, stability and sustainable development of natural resources and environment, and form a healthy, inclusive, coordinated and unified relationship between man and land.

Q: When did China introduce this concept? What impact has it had on the development of China?

A: General Secretary Hu Jintao put forward the idea of "building ecological civilization" in the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which indicates that China's economic and social development has shifted from paying attention to the construction of material civilization, spiritual civilization, political civilization and social civilization to the era of ecological civilization in which nature is respected, man and nature live in harmony and develop together.

Entering the era of ecological civilization marks a historic leap in China's economic and social development. In this new historical period, a new Scientific Outlook on Development-people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable Scientific Outlook on Development came into being, which formed a sustainable development strategy of harmonious coexistence between people and land, put forward the system design of building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, and formulated a series of policies and measures accordingly, which will greatly promote the development of China's economy, society, ecology and people's livelihood.

First, the value theory of resources and environment in the era of ecological civilization

1. When human beings enter the era of ecological civilization, the traditional theory of resource and environmental value has encountered unprecedented challenges. The ecological value of resources and environment and the value of productivity increase and decrease each other in the process of civilization development. Only by reasonably balancing the dual values of resources and environment can we realize the sustainable development of economy and society.

Value in a general sense refers to the use or positive role of natural objects, that is, use value. Value is the starting point of human social activities, which is to explore and judge whether the objects or products of human production activities have value from the subjective perspective of human beings, and the value of resources and environment is also based on whether resources and environment participate in the process of human social production activities, whether they go through human labor or not, and whether they are used to judge human beings.

2. The traditional value theory of resources and environment is facing challenges.

In the era of ecological civilization, the development of modern economy and society challenges the traditional value theory from two aspects: first, with the arrival of the era of knowledge economy and virtual economy, the scope and function of labor and labor to create value are revised and questioned; Secondly, for some natural materials and environment, because they did not participate in social labor and did not reflect the entity in commodity exchange, some values (use value, not entering pricing and exchange) were missing, leading to the uncontrolled use of resources and environment without corresponding compensation, resulting in the deterioration and destruction of resources and environment.

The value theory of resources and environment in the era of ecological civilization is based on the harmony between man and land, the use value of resources and environment to natural ecosystem and social ecosystem, and the theory of realizing the coordinated and sustainable development of economy, society and ecology by seeking the value balance of development and protection.

3. Ecological value and productivity value of resources and environment

All kinds of substances, energy and their environment in the natural ecosystem are valuable as long as they can be used by human beings. Resources and environment are of use value not only to human beings, but also to natural ecosystems. In the era of ecological civilization, the value of resources and environment is no longer just a measuring tool for human beings to engage in commodity exchange activities, but also a basic environmental quality guarantee for human beings' healthy survival and a function of maintaining the balance and development of natural ecosystems. According to their different functions of ensuring development and protecting ecology, the value of resources and environment can be divided into ecological value and productivity value.

Ecology is the existing form and moving state of natural system. As an independent discipline, natural ecosystem relies on its own organizational mechanism to complete the process of material circulation and energy flow through the movement of ecological elements such as air, water, sunlight, soil and biology, and maintain its balanced development. This process does not require the participation of human labor. This kind of natural material production does not have the productivity value in the sense of traditional economics, but it has the ecological value of maintaining the balance and development of natural ecosystems. The realization of ecological value is the premise of ensuring that human beings have sufficient resources and a good environment, and it is the basis of social material production.

Productivity is formed and developed in the social production activities of human beings using resources and environment. After entering the social ecosystem, resources and environment become the basic elements of the development of social productive forces (means of production and labor objects), and through the processing of social material production process, the material wealth foundation of human social civilization is finally formed, and its utility or value is embodied in the resource foundation and environmental conditions of the development of social productive forces. The use value of resources and environment relative to social system and human productive labor is called productivity value. The development of social productive forces promotes the development and utilization of resources and environment, and promotes the realization of the value of resources and environmental productive forces. The process of realizing the productivity value of resources and environment is the process of civilization and progress.

4. The unity of opposites between ecological value and productivity value

Resources and environment have ecological value and productivity value. Ecological value is meaningful to both nature and human beings, while productivity value is only meaningful to human beings. The value of productive forces depends on the existence of ecological value, and the two are unified in resources and environment.

At each stage of civilization development, different views on human and land have produced different values of resources and environment. The demand of civilization development for resources and environment is different, and the realization of resources and environment value is also different. In the early days of civilization, human beings had limited understanding of nature and the lowest level of productivity. They can only rely on simple tools such as stone tools, animal bone horns and branches, and directly use natural materials as means of subsistence, which has little impact on the natural ecological environment and preserves ecological value. During the period of agricultural civilization, the level of productivity has been continuously improved, and human understanding of nature has also been deepened. With the improvement of production tools, human beings began to actively develop and utilize resources and environment from passive dependence. Social material production is manifested in the use of animal power and water conservancy to develop agriculture and animal husbandry, and anthropocentrism has gradually formed. At this stage, the ecological value and production value of resources and environment are changing. While the material wealth is growing, some ecological and environmental problems are beginning to appear. In the era of industrial civilization, in less than 200 years, social material wealth accumulated rapidly and the population expanded rapidly. The process of urbanization and industrialization has made the development and utilization of resources and environment reach an unprecedented level, and the productivity value of resources and environment has been realized to the greatest extent. However, a series of resource and environmental problems, such as land degradation, water shortage, forest decline, air pollution and greenhouse effect, have appeared one after another, and the ecological value has been seriously damaged.

The dual values of resources and environment are mutually increasing and decreasing in the process of civilization development. The progress of productive forces maximizes the value of productive forces in resources and environment, but greatly reduces the ecological value, worsens the natural ecological environment and makes development unsustainable. In order to form a harmonious and sustainable relationship between man and land and develop a harmonious ecological civilization, we must solve the contradiction between ecological value and productivity value.

Human beings should not only seek survival in the process of realizing ecological value, but also seek development in the process of realizing productivity value. If the ecology is destroyed, the quality of life and development will be impossible. Therefore, the development of civilization should not only realize the productivity value of resources and environment, but also ensure the realization of ecological value, which is the essence of the value theory of resources and environment in the era of ecological civilization.

Second, the value theory of resources and environment and the management of land and resources

1. Land and resources management should be based on the evaluation of the carrying capacity of resources and environment, scientifically coordinate the development and utilization pattern of resources and environment through the compilation and implementation of land planning, balance ecological value and productivity value, and promote sustainable economic and social development.

In the era of ecological civilization, land and resources work is related to the sustainable development of economy and society, and it is a strategic and overall issue.

2. The goal orientation of land and resources work in the new period

All-round, coordinated and sustainable economic and social development means people-oriented, making overall plans and taking a civilized development path of production development, affluent life and good ecology. It is to build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, realize the unity of speed and structure, quality and benefit, and coordinate economy, population and resources, so that people can produce and live in a good ecological environment. Land and resources management should give full play to the role of "guarantee and promotion", realize the balance between ecological protection and development through the scientific allocation of resources, and promote the sustainable development of economy and society through the sustainable utilization of resources.

3. Coordinate the contradiction of "double insurance" with the theory of double value balance.

To ensure the sustainable development of human society, we must protect the sustainable development of natural ecosystems, but at the same time, we cannot limit economic and social development because of protection. Safeguarding development and protecting resources are a pair of contradictions, which should be solved by balancing ecological value and productivity value.

The material energy of natural ecosystem is limited, and its cycle renewal has its own laws and preconditions, so the total amount it can maintain development is also limited, and the speed of development must be consistent with the cycle renewal of natural ecosystem. Unreasonable scale and speed will inevitably lead to ecological and environmental problems, affect economic and social development and produce a chain reaction. This reaction may not be obvious in a certain region or period, but its cumulative effect is enormous. The influence of human activities on temperature, coupled with the anomaly of atmospheric circulation and ocean water temperature, has brought disastrous losses to human beings in recent years and restricted development.

In the era of ecological civilization, the realization of productivity value is based on not destroying the self-repairing ability of natural production system, that is, not destroying ecological value. It is necessary to find a suitable "value balance point" in the realization of the two values, determine a reasonable productivity development speed and the restraint intensity of ecological protection, and realize the optimization of the realization of the two values. Only when ecological value and productivity value are in a reasonable balance position can we ensure the coordinated development of natural ecosystem and social ecosystem and maintain and promote the sustainable utilization of resources and environment.

4. Do a good job in the basic work of balancing the value of resources and environment.

In order to achieve the goal of ensuring development and protecting resources, land and resources work should first proceed from the function of land and resources investigation, do a good job in evaluating the carrying capacity of resources and environment, and lay a scientific foundation for adjusting the balance between ecological value and productivity value.

Natural resources and environment are the carriers of human society, and people-oriented economic and social development is the object of resources and environment. The carrying capacity of resources and environment refers to the ability that the quantity and quality of resources and environment in a region and a certain period can withstand the needs of sustainable economic and social development on the premise of ensuring ecological restoration and sustainability and meeting human needs.

The evaluation of resources and environment carrying capacity is to comprehensively evaluate various factors and influencing factors of resources and environment by scientific methods, determine the threshold of resources and environment carrying capacity in a certain period, so as to guide the determination of the scope, intensity and scale of carrying objects, and realize the rational development and utilization of resources and environment by controlling population, economic aggregate and total emission. In the evaluation of resources and environment carrying capacity, on the one hand, the quantity, quality and spatial distribution of resources and environment, on the other hand, the total social demand, and at the same time, the influence of economic and social progress, scientific and technological development, cultural background, institutional policies, management system and legal system on the way, scale and speed of human society's development and utilization of resources and environment are considered, and finally the carrying capacity is determined.

In fact, the carrying capacity of resources and environment defines the highest upper limit of productivity value development and the lowest lower limit of ecological value realization. The carrying capacity of resources and environment regulates the intensity and speed of resource development and utilization, and the balance between resources, environment, ecological value and productivity value.

5. Give full play to the regulation function of land planning to solve the problem of "double insurance"

Adjusting the balance between ecological value and productivity value by evaluating the carrying capacity of resources and environment should be realized through land planning. Land planning is the highest level of spatial development planning, which mainly coordinates the development of different spatial units and optimizes the spatial development pattern of land through the spatial allocation of resources, population and economic activities. Land planning plays an important and fundamental role in rational development, utilization and protection of resources and environment, comprehensive coordination of various interest relations, and establishment of scientific development order and regulation mechanism, and is an indispensable public management tool for sustainable development.

Land planning based on the carrying capacity of resources and environment can effectively regulate the intensity and speed of development and utilization of resources and environment, scientifically coordinate the pattern of development and utilization of resources and environment, scientifically set economic and social development goals, reasonably determine the industrial spatial layout, industrial type and scale of a region, ensure the self-renewal and recovery cycle of the ecosystem, and avoid over-exploitation, thus achieving the balance between ecological value and productivity value and ensuring the sustainable utilization of resources and environment.

6. Land and resources management has entered the era of ecological civilization.

Leading the development of resources and environmental protection with the construction of ecological civilization, coordinating the development and utilization pattern of land and resources with natural division of resources, environment, giving full play to the advantages of regional resources and environment, improving the benefit distribution mechanism, promoting scientific and technological innovation and differentiated management, and promoting regional coordinated development.

In the era of ecological civilization, we should change our thinking in time and find the focus of land and resources management.

Leading resource development and environmental protection with ecological civilization construction

Resources and environment are an inseparable whole, influencing and restricting each other, and resources reside in the environment. In the work of land and resources in the era of ecological civilization, resources and environment must be planned and arranged as a whole.

At present, there are two problems in the utilization of environmental resources. On the cognitive level, due to the lack of understanding of the resource attributes of the environment, the environmental value can not be fully reflected, resulting in the lack of clear and clear property rights of environmental resources. On the practical level, people realize that users should pay environmental costs, but often only consider the normal cost of using environmental resources, while ignoring the compensation cost of environmental pollution and damage in the process of using resources. When users consume environmental resources, the compensation for environmental pollution and destruction is often borne by society, which externalizes environmental costs and inevitably leads to waste and overuse of environmental resources. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify environmental property rights, internalize the cost of environmental resources, and form a compensation mechanism of "whoever uses and pays, whoever destroys and governs".

The work of land and resources needs to be guided by the construction of ecological civilization, coordinate resource development and environmental protection, establish and improve the measurement standards of resource and environmental costs, and bring the use costs of resources and environment into the total cost of national economic development and into the GDP accounting system to curb the destruction, plunder and over-exploitation of resources and environment.

Coordinate the development and utilization pattern of land and resources through natural division of resources, environment and nature.

The endowment conditions of resources and environment have natural regional characteristics. At present, China's economic and social development is based on administrative regions, which often leads to the fragmentation of resources, environment and nature in different administrative regions and the fragmentation of administrative management system. Man-made administrative divisions will inevitably aggravate the contradiction between regional economic and social development and resources and environment, which is manifested in three aspects: the contradiction between resource allocation and environmental protection among administrative regions, the imbalance of resource development and utilization among administrative regions, and the uncoordinated industrial layout among regions.

The development of land resources should be based on the natural division of resources, environment and resources, and determine the regional land resources development pattern from the national level. Under this pattern, the planning and design of each administrative region should be carried out. Where the planning of each administrative region overlaps or overlaps with the natural division of resources, environment and nature, regional coordination should be carried out according to the land planning pattern to avoid unreasonable development behavior driven by local interests or local protection. Dividing natural divisions of resources and environment and guiding and coordinating the distribution of regional productive forces through the evaluation of resources and environmental carrying capacity should be a basic, pioneering and continuous work of land and resources work.

Give full play to the advantages of regional resources and overcome the "short board" constraints.

The scale and intensity of a region's development and its degree of coordination with resources and environment depend not only on the superior resources and environment conditions of the region, but also on its restrictive factors. Land and resources work should not only attach importance to the advantages of resources and environment, but also take necessary measures and ways to guide the region to overcome the constraints of "short board" factors of resources and environment and realize regional sustainable development.

Through the evaluation of resources and environmental carrying capacity, China's land resources are divided into different regions, and the advantages and disadvantages of resources in different regions are determined, that is, the leading factors and restrictive factors affecting the development of a region are determined. Through functional zoning, its function of supporting economic and social development is reasonably positioned. Through the suitability evaluation, the types of industries suitable for development and unsuitable for development in different regions are established, and the production scale and layout of developable industries are controlled from the total amount and space. Formulating the corresponding ecological environment compensation scheme has become a scientific basis for formulating regional development planning and regional economic restructuring, which can not only ensure moderate development and improve people's livelihood, but also effectively control the impact on resources and environment, and will not make the "short board" shorter.

Improve the distribution mechanism of economic benefits and optimize the allocation of resources.

Optimize the requirements of resource allocation, establish an environmental property right system, form a mechanism for ecological compensation and paid use of the environment, and build a mechanism for forming the price of resources and environment that reflects market demand and scarcity of resources and environment. Reform and improve the system of resources and environmental taxes and fees and related policies in line with China's national conditions and the stage of economic and social development. Reform and improve the allocation policy of resources and environment, and coordinate the interests of the central, local and enterprises.

At present, the outstanding problem to be solved is the allocation of mineral resources, and the contradiction between the state ownership of mineral resources and the central and local finances should be handled well. Define the powers of centralized and unified management and classified management of mineral resources, and clarify the responsibilities and rights of the central government, local governments, enterprises and local people in resource protection and development. In the allocation of land resources, it is necessary to establish a unified land market between urban and rural areas, strictly distinguish between public land acquisition and business land acquisition, and solve the rational distribution of land income among the state, the collective and the individual.

Promote scientific and technological innovation and improve the utilization rate of resources

Rely on scientific and technological progress to improve the ecological environment, change the old balance of natural ecology, establish a dynamic balance of spiral development of natural ecology, and form a virtuous circle ecosystem.

According to the carrying capacity of resources and environment, it is an important way to develop and utilize resources and environment to a limited extent, establish a two-way mechanism of development and compensation, and form a scientific and reasonable benign development model of resources and environment. Rely on scientific and technological progress, economize and intensively use resources, and increase the incentive and restraint mechanism by formulating new policies to promote scientific and technological innovation. At the same time, improve the social material production process, promote clean production, encourage and support energy-saving emission reduction projects, and develop circular economy. Through policy encouragement and technological innovation, we will carry out comprehensive utilization of resources, improve the efficiency of resource utilization, develop new materials and new energy, and find new uses. In addition, advocate a "low-carbon" production and lifestyle, and with the progress of science and technology and the change of production and lifestyle, improve the carrying capacity of resources and environment.

Implementing differentiated management and promoting regional coordinated development

Ecological value and productivity value are dynamically balanced, which not only determines the resource and environmental endowment of a region, but also adapts to the regional productivity level. China should handle the balance between ecological value and productivity value with a medium-level sustainable development model.

China has a vast territory, and different regions have different development and utilization of resources and environment due to different natural endowments. Only under the conditions of different resources and environmental carrying capacity can economic and social development be sustainable. Therefore, we must return to rationality along the thinking track of sustainable development, objectively and calmly analyze the carrying capacity of regional resources and environment, and formulate reasonable differentiated economic development policies.

In different functional areas of national planning, rural areas and cities determine economic and social development indicators respectively, and correspondingly, determine resource development, resource and environmental protection and compensation indicators respectively. Using the balance theory of ecological value of resources and environment and productivity value, the scale and intensity of regional economic development with ecological protection and resource and environment development as the mainstay are adjusted. At the same time, it is necessary to establish an incentive and compensation mechanism for ecological protection, compensate the productivity value of areas that mainly realize ecological value, adjust the balance between the overall ecological value and productivity value of the country through regional differentiation policies, and adjust the overall economic and social development and the realization of ecological environmental protection goals through regional resources and environmental development and utilization planning.

(Originally published in China Land and Resources 20 12 March 14)