Rural environmental governance should adhere to the principle of protection first

In recent years, the problems of environmental pollution and destruction have become increasingly serious, and the contradiction between environmental protection and economic development has become increasingly acute. Environmental problems are no longer a problem of a single region, but have become a problem restricting the economic development of the whole country. Faced with various environmental problems, people have increasingly doubted the traditional concepts of economic development of the past——should the extensive mode of economic growth at the expense of the environment have been eliminated long ago? Should the old management concept of “pollute first, treat later” have been abandoned long ago? Amid strong appeals from all sectors of society, legislators began to reflect on our country's environmental legislation.

Last year, the eighth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress revised and adopted the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China. In this revision of the law, the basic principle of environmental protection——the principle of “protection first”——was explicitly proposed in law for the first time. This is a striking highlight and will certainly have a major and far-reaching impact on our country's current rural environmental protection work.

The so-called protection first actually means that in the process of economic development, with regard to development and utilization and environmental protection, the environment should come first. In the new environmental protection law, protection first is taken as a principle, holding that in the process of development, utilization, and economic development, environmental protection should come first. This is a major shift in our country's management thinking. Protection first should contain two meanings: first, when resources are developed and utilized, environmental protection should take precedence over development and utilization; second, when the environment and economic development come into irreconcilable conflict, the principle of giving priority to the environment should be followed, and the environment should be protected even at the expense of economic development.

“Protection first” is a concept that runs through the overall situation of environmental legislation. As a basic principle stipulated in a foundational law, it can influence the formulation of other environmental legislation and environmental policies. In the new environmental protection law, quite a few provisions on rural and agricultural environmental protection have been added, such as Article 33, which requires governments at all levels to strengthen the protection of the agricultural environment, strengthen monitoring and early warning of agricultural pollution sources, and prevent and control ecological problems; Article 49, which prevents waste, wastewater, and toxic and harmful substances from being applied to farmland; and Article 50, under which the government arranges fiscal funds to support environmental protection work. These provisions all reflect the legislators' idea of “protection first,” that is, for rural areas, environmental protection should take precedence over economic development, and investment in environmental protection should be increased at the very beginning of agricultural production.

The reason the principle of “protection first” has aroused considerable response in both academic circles and society is not only that it has value as a basic principle, but also that it is in itself of great progressive significance.

First, the establishment of the principle of “protection first” is conducive to promoting the establishment throughout society of the idea that environmental protection takes precedence over economic development, to re-examining the relationship between the environment and economic development during development, and to promoting the transformation of agricultural production methods. As a basic principle, “protection first” is a policy weather vane for rural areas. Changes in legal provisions will inevitably cause the government, especially governments in areas with serious environmental problems, to re-examine agricultural development methods. This is the most intuitive progressive significance of the principle of “protection first.”

Second, the establishment of the principle of “protection first” is conducive to promoting the development of environmental protection supervision in our country. Because the old environmental protection law provided for coordinating environmental protection with economic development, our country's environmental supervision departments, after weighing corporate benefits and environmental benefits, often took a rather laissez-faire attitude toward environmentally destructive behavior by highly profitable enterprises. After the law was revised, environmental protection takes precedence over economic development, and the level of the environmental assessment system will also rise accordingly. For example, issues such as pesticide production and use and livestock and poultry manure treatment will all become factors that must be considered in advance in agricultural production.

Third, the establishment of the principle of “protection first” encourages the conduct of environmental public interest litigation in our country. At the end of December last year, the Jiangsu High People's Court heard an environmental public interest litigation case and ultimately issued a judgment imposing a fine of 160 million yuan on the polluting enterprise, which attracted widespread attention. Although the new environmental protection law had not yet been implemented at that time, judges and environmental protection departments had already innovated their concepts and practiced the principle of protection first. After the new environmental protection law was implemented, Shandong also heard two environmental public interest litigation cases. After that, similar public interest litigation cases will become more and more numerous and will bring more direct changes to social development and public concepts.

With regard to the principle of “protection first,” there may be problems such as its declaratory significance being greater than its practical significance, difficulty in concrete implementation, and the possibility of narrowing judicial discretion. If we want to better protect the environment and ecology under the guidance of this principle, on the one hand we should formulate a series of implementing rules to carry out protection first, and on the other hand we should avoid extremism in protection first and must not turn protection into conservatism, neither developing nor even going backward for the sake of protection.

The principle of protection first embodies the transformation of our country's environmental protection philosophy. It is a major institutional innovation and has guiding significance especially for rural areas in transforming their approach to environmental protection. We should deeply understand its intension and extension, formulate laws and policies under the guidance of this principle, and let it play a greater and more positive role in our country's environmental protection.