Changting’s experience, a vivid interpretation of ＂ecological prosperity leads to civilized prosperity＂

　　[Environmental protection written talk]

　　Author: An Lizhe (President of Beijing Forestry University) Lin Zhen (Dean of Ecological Civilization Research Institute of Beijing Forestry University, special researcher of Beijing Supreme Leader New Era Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought Research Center) Zhang Zhiqiang (Dean of School of Soil and Water Conservation of Beijing Forestry University)

　　"If you advance, you will win. If you don’t advance, you will retreat." The heavy entrustment of the Supreme Leader General Secretary started the tough battle of soil erosion control in Changting in the new era. With the indomitable spirit of Qingshan Mountain, the people of Changting inherited the spirit of Soviet area and the red land culture along the correct direction of ecological civilization, and continued to take firm steps in the green Long March, becoming the vanguard of the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought, constantly seeking answers to the questions of the times of "ecological priority and green development" in practice, and successfully achieving a win-win situation for environmental restoration and ecological enrichment.

　　As early as before the founding of New China, Changting had already begun to control soil erosion. However, the course of governance in the past half century has been ups and downs, and no obvious results have been achieved. By the early 1980s, the soil erosion area of Changting County still accounted for nearly one third of the county’s land area, and the naked red clay mountain looked like a burning flame from a distance, which became the pain of the people in the old district.

　　Reform and opening up have brought historical opportunities to solve this historical problem. The local party committees and governments led the people to sum up the "three-character classics" of soil and water conservation. From 1996 to 2001, the top leaders of Fujian Province visited Changting for many times, gave scientific guidance to the local soil erosion control work, and listed "comprehensive soil erosion control focusing on serious soil erosion areas in Changting" as one of the practical projects run by the people, which completely reversed the situation of soil erosion.

　　Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Changting has kept in mind the entrustment of the Supreme Leader General Secretary, sharpened his sword for ten years, deeply explored the realization path of enriching the people by ecology, developed industries such as under-forest economy, seedling economy and eco-tourism, and turned "flaming mountains" into "flower and fruit mountains" and turned poor counties into happy townships. By the end of 2020, the soil erosion rate in Changting was reduced to 6.78%, the forest coverage rate was increased to 80.31%, and the per capita disposable income of rural residents was increased to 18,149 yuan, which explained the scientific conclusion of the Supreme Leader General Secretary that "ecology is prosperous and civilization is prosperous" with vivid practice.

　　In 2017, Changting became the first batch of national ecological civilization construction demonstration counties and "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" innovation practice base. In 2020, the comprehensive control of soil erosion and ecological restoration in Changting County was successfully selected as a typical case of ecological restoration in the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), and the "Changting Experience" began to go global.

　　The great achievements of comprehensive control of soil erosion and ecological civilization construction in Changting are the vivid practice of the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought, which provides a new model from ecological restoration, ecological poverty alleviation to ecological revitalization for areas suffering from soil erosion. To sum up, Changting’s successful experience mainly lies in the following three aspects:

　　First, based on concept innovation, stimulate the core power to achieve green transformation. From logging for heating, burning mountains and destroying forests to treating green mountains and green hills as Jinshan Yinshan, and then transforming green mountains and green hills into Jinshan Yinshan, Changting experienced great changes in thought, gradually established correct ecological values and realized a complete change in development mode. Over the past decades, Changting has formed an ecological governance concept of overall coordination, source management, comprehensive management and systematic management, taking mountains, rivers, fields, lakes, grass and sand as a life community, recognizing that a good ecological environment is the most inclusive welfare of people’s livelihood, and seeking harmonious coexistence between man and nature. At the same time, it has achieved a governance model with the government as the leading factor, the masses as the main body and the whole society participating together, which has stimulated the initiative of the masses and created a series of scientific methods for ecological governance. In the next step, Changting should continue to exert the power of concept innovation, actively carry out ecological civilization education and publicity activities for campus and society, promote industrial ecologicalization and ecological industrialization, and create new sources of living water and inexhaustible power. It is suggested that Changting’s advanced practice of establishing the concept of ecological civilization by all the people should be popularized and studied in the whole society, so as to create a good situation for all the people to participate in the construction of ecological civilization, realize the complete change of development concept, promote the change of development mode, and jointly paint a beautiful picture of China.

　　The second is to use technological innovation as a tool to create a magic weapon to achieve green transformation. After years of exploration, Changting has explored a scientific governance and development path combining engineering measures with biological measures, artificial governance with ecological restoration, and ecological construction with economic development. From the system of science and technology commissioners advocated by the supreme leader in Fujian to the application of various new technologies in ecological governance and industrial development, water conservancy, forestry, agriculture, science and technology departments and scientific research institutions at all levels have made many valuable practices. For example, the "three stations, one hospital and one center" such as the expert workstation of Changting soil and water conservation academician has been established successively to attract domestic scientific research institutions and graduate students to Changting to carry out scientific research on soil and water conservation and give full play to the key role of science and technology. Next, it is suggested that Changting continue to explore and practice along the scientific path, and continue to be stable in the governed areas; For ridges and patch areas that are difficult to control, non-proliferation should be given priority; For some areas that cannot be managed, nature parks can be built to carry out nature education, turning waste into treasure and comprehensive utilization. In terms of ecosystem stability, it is necessary to improve forest quality, increase the proportion of broad-leaved forests, and realize the transformation and upgrading of pine forests; Pay attention to fire prevention and pest control, and prevent the invasion risk of Trichophyton matsutake in advance; Using information technology to build an ecological environment monitoring system based on 5G technology to realize a map of ecological environment information. In realizing ecological benefits, we should make use of resource advantages and combine technological innovation.Develop new economic and new formats such as bamboo and wood industry, online e-commerce, eco-culture, tourism and health care, and carbon sink trading, so that ecological and economic and social development complement each other.

　　Third, take institutional innovation as the beam, and build a secure system to realize green transformation. System construction is the life skeleton and basic guarantee of ecological civilization construction system. One of the important reasons why Changting can stand out in many soil erosion areas and achieve success is that it has formed a good institutional guarantee. In the aspect of innovation of governance subject, a diversified investment and management mechanism with companies, private capital and the public as the main body has been formed; In the innovation of governance mechanism, the deep governance system and mechanism of "three-level" secretaries at county, township (town) and village (community) were established to grasp soil erosion, which realized the transformation of soil erosion control from scale to precision; In the aspect of innovation of legal protection, laws and regulations such as "Regulations on Promoting Ecological Civilization Construction in Changting Soil and Water Loss Area of Longyan City" were promulgated and implemented, and an ecological red line control mechanism was established, so that ecological civilization construction entered the legal track. In the future, Changting should continue to adhere to the existing institutional advantages, explore the formation of an evaluation index system for ecological civilization construction, and evaluate it in a quantitative way, so as to promote the region’s civilized development towards production development, affluent life and good ecology; Continue to strengthen the rule of law and resolutely protect the ecology with the strictest system; Innovate green finance, realize the value of ecological products, and revitalize the future development space.

　　The green transformation of Changting is a great pioneering work in underdeveloped mountainous areas, and it is also a valuable experience in soil erosion control in red soil areas. It is not only an important breeding ground for the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought, but also a successful experimental field for practicing the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought. Changting’s experience is not only a typical demonstration for the whole country, but also a good model to tell the world the story of China in ecological civilization construction, which is of far-reaching significance in spreading China’s ecological wisdom and contributing to China’s green experience.

　　Guangming Daily (December 18, 2021, 09 edition)