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The UNCED Agenda 21, formulated at the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development in 1992, recommends that a comprehensive
marine management system be established by countries with sea coasts
to ensure sustainable utilization of the sea and coordinated development
of the marine programs. This recommendation has received endorsement
from all the countries in the world, including China. In recent
years China has established and perfected state marine management
organs as well as local organs in coastal regions, with a fairly
large contingent of personnel engaged in marine law enforcement,
management, monitoring and scientific research. Marine-related laws
and regulations have been formulated and comprehensive management
exercised.
China has also improved its legislation work concerning maritime
matters. The National People's Congress has adopted the Law of the
People's Republic of China on Its Territorial Seas and Adjacent
Zones, Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic
of China, Maritime Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of
China, Fisheries Law of the People's Republic of China, Mineral
Resources Law of the People's Republic of China and other related
laws. The State Council has promulgated administrative regulations,
encompassing the Regulations on the Exploitation of Offshore Petroleum
Resources in Cooperation with Foreign Enterprises, Regulations on
the Administration of Sino-Foreign Oceanographic Surveys, Regulations
Governing the Laying of Submarine Cables and Pipelines, and Procedures
for the Registration and Administration of Mineral Resources Survey
Zones and Sectors. In content, these laws and administrative regulations
are all consistent with the principles and relevant provisions contained
in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The formulation and
implementation of these laws, rules and regulations has, on the
one hand, protected China's state sovereignty and marine rights
and interests, and on the other, promoted the rational development
of marine resources and the effective protection of the marine environment.
Comprehensive management of China's marine areas is beginning to
be contained within a legal framework.
Aiming at the scientific, effective and comprehensive management
of marine areas, from 1989 to 1995 a total of 3,663 marine zones
have been divided into different functional types by the relevant
departments of the central and coastal area governments, encompassing
development and utilization zones, control and protection zones,
nature preservation zones, special function zones and reserved zones.
From 1991 to 1994, these departments worked out the National Plan
for Marine Development, in which the strategic objective of marine
development, marine industrial production and distribution planning,
and regional marine development planning were put forward, along
with policies and measures to promote marine development.
In recent years, China has achieved gratifying successes in comprehensive
management experiments in the coastal zones. The Comprehensive Survey
of China's Coastal Zones and Tideland Resources, which was carried
out from 1979 to 1986, has accumulated abundant information for
further efforts to be made in this field. Since 1994, construction
of the Coastal Zone Model Comprehensive Management Area has been
going on in Xiamen, with joint efforts by the Chinese government,
the UN Development Program (UNDP) and other organizations. This
project, which has achieved good results, has been praised by international
organizations and provided experience for China and other countries
to draw on for work in this regard. In 1997, China again cooperated
with the UNDP in coastal zone comprehensive management experiments
carried out in Fangcheng in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
Yangjiang in Guangdong Province and Wenchang in Hainan Province.
The basic objective of comprehensive marine management is to ensure
a healthy marine environment and the sustainable utilization of
marine resources. To make a greater success in this, China will
make further efforts in this field, as follows:
It will perfect the legal system pertaining to the use and administration
of sea areas;
It will set up and perfect an information system to bolster comprehensive
marine management, and expand the survey and appraisal of marine
resources and the marine environment;
It will formulate large-scale offshore functional divisions and
plans for comprehensive marine development and protection;
It will set up an overall policy-making mechanism to promote the
coordinated development of marine programs;
It will gradually perfect the multi-functional force of marine
supervision and law enforcement personnel so as to form an integrated
air, sea and onshore marine surveillance and management system;
It will mobilize people from all walks of life to take part in
the protection of marine resources and the marine environment and
enhance their consciousness of the need to cherish and protect the
ocean.
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