The annual land reclamation of the country is expected to reach
500-700 square kilometers in the next five years, thanks to the
fast growing economy and the dearth of developable land on the
coasts.
The deputy director of Sea Area Management Department of the
State Ocean Administration (SOA), A Dong, said yesterday that the
reclaimed land would be used as fisheries, seafood farms, and for
tourism and transportation.
At present, China reclaims about 300 square kilometers of land
every year.
And despite the increase in reclamation, the SOA would see to it
that the seas are not over-exploited. Land reclamation can harm the
marine environment, A Dong said.
In fact, the SOA has asked experts to study whether rapid
reclamation could result in serious damage to the environment,
especially marine ecology.
He said the law had played an important role in keeping rampant
reclamation under check, and would continue to do so in the future,
too.
The deputy director of SOA's Sea Area Management Department, Lu
Caixia, said: "Earlier, many cases of unnecessary reclamation used
to be reported, and the interests of fishermen could not be
safeguarded."
But the law gave the fishermen the right to seek compensation if
their designated areas were occupied by tourism, transportation or
other big projects.
"So the fishermen and others dependent on the sea for their
livelihood are now willing to pay some fees. In some places, the
right to use a certain area of the sea has even been allocated
through bidding," Lu said.
In Guangdong Province, which is rich in sea resources, the right
to use of 0.06 hectare of sea fetched up to 20,000 yuan (US$2,500)
last year.
In 2006, SOA collected more than 1.5 billion yuan (US$188
million) as fee to use the sea, 500 million yuan (US$63 million)
more than the previous year.
(China Daily January 11, 2007)
