Over 100 million mu of damaged land nationwide still has room for reclamation and utilization

A relevant official from the Ministry of Land and Resources revealed at the 2014 Beijing International Symposium on Land Reclamation and Ecological Restoration that China has so far reclaimed a cumulative total of about 30 million mu of land, while more than 100 million mu of damaged land has yet to be reclaimed and utilized.

In recent years, China's research on mine ecological restoration has developed rapidly.

According to Liu Renfu, deputy director of the Cultivated Land Protection Department of the Ministry of Land and Resources, China's land reclamation currently faces a situation of “old debts unpaid while new debts accumulate.” According to incomplete statistics, over a long period, human activities in production and construction have caused about 130 million mu of damaged land. As production and construction continue to develop, around 4 million mu of newly damaged land is added each year, of which about 2.75 million mu is damaged by production and construction activities and more than 900,000 mu is damaged by natural disasters.

In recent years, China's research on mine ecological restoration has developed rapidly. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the central government invested a total of 12.9 billion yuan, which drove 50 billion yuan in investment from local governments, enterprises and social sources. During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, China invested an average of 85.78 billion yuan per year in ecological restoration. All 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country have established a deposit system for mine geological environment treatment and restoration and a guarantee system for land reclamation costs. According to the Ministry of Land and Resources plan, by 2015, China's mine restoration rate will reach 35%.