By Chang Qin, People’s Daily
Spread across a desk in the office of the National Territorial Spatial Planning Bureau of China’s Ministry of Natural Resources is a special map of the country. Across it run vivid red lines, weaving through mountains, rivers, major water sources, and wildlife habitats — boundaries drawn to safeguard China’s ecological security.
China first introduced the concept of “ecological protection red lines” in 2011, and by 2022 had completed the nationwide delineation of ecological protection red lines covering both land and sea. Under the system, areas with critically important ecological functions and environmentally fragile or sensitive ecosystems are placed under the strictest protection.
Today, these red lines encircle 3.19 million square kilometers, including about 3.04 million square kilometers of land and 150,000 square kilometers of marine areas. The system has not only strengthened the country’s ecological security, but also contributed Chinese solutions and experience to global environmental governance.
Xie Haixia, director general of the National Territorial Spatial Planning Bureau, elaborated on the formulation approach of China’s ecological protection red lines.
She said the whole initiative adhered to the principles of strengthening overall coordination, integrating delineation and management, prioritizing protection, and designating all areas that ought to be included.
It was formulated based on the assessment of resource and environmental carrying capacity and territorial spatial development suitability, and closely linked with the development of the nature reserve system, she added.
“All regions with critically important ecological functions, such as water conservation and biodiversity protection, as well as ecologically fragile areas vulnerable to soil erosion, desertification, and rocky desertification, were included within the ecological protection red lines,” Xie said.
To further improve the diversity, stability, and sustainability of ecosystems, China also incorporated habitats of species with extremely small populations, along with mangroves, glaciers, permanent snowfields, coral reefs, and seagrass beds into protected zones, in addition to forests, grasslands, and wetlands.
National Park of Hainan Tropical Rainforest in south China’s Hainan province tells a special story of giving way to nature.
To create more space for one of the park’s original inhabitants, the critically endangered Hainan black-crested gibbon, authorities carried out an ecological relocation program in the park’s core area.
Fu Zhiming, head of the village committee of Xingaofeng village in Baisha Li autonomous county, recalled the difficult decision: “Generations of villagers had lived deep in the mountains, drawing our livelihoods from the forests, so at first many people were reluctant to leave. But the red line is inviolable. We must make sacrifices for this national treasure of the rainforest.”
Today, the Hainan black-crested gibbon population has steadily grown to seven groups totaling 44 individuals.
A total of 459 households and 1,975 villagers relocated from remote mountain areas into new housing communities. Before relocation, annual per capita income was only a little over 2,000 yuan ($294), and today, the figure has jumped to more than 20,000. Villagers now make a living from rubber groves arranged via land swaps, alongside under-forest businesses and edible mushroom planting.
Another transformation can be seen along the Tiaodeng River located within a key ecological zone of the Yangtze River basin in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality.
“In the past, the river was covered in foam, and there were scattered polluting workshops all along the banks,” recalled an elderly local resident surnamed Wang, who has lived by the river for three decades.
Beginning in 2018, the districts of Jiulongpo and Dadukou in the municipality shut down 550 heavily polluting small businesses in accordance with law, demolished 243,000 square meters of illegal structures, and restored more than 652,900 square meters of river ecological space.
Local authorities also introduced a joint river-management system combining “government river chiefs” and “corporate river chiefs.” Executives from 25 key polluting enterprises were appointed as corporate river chiefs, turning former polluters into protectors and encouraging companies to carry out advanced wastewater treatment.
Today, chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, and total phosphorus levels at the river’s outlet into the Yangtze River have fallen by 46 percent, 97 percent, and 64 percent respectively. What was once a foul-smelling waterway has been transformed into a riverside park, while revenue in surrounding sectors such as dining and lodging has risen by 75 percent.
Over the past decade, China has built a comprehensive and increasingly strict regulatory framework for ecological protection red lines.
The management system has been incorporated into China’s environmental code, while revisions and new legislation, including the national park law and regulations on nature reserves, have further strengthened the legal foundation for ecological protection.
Strict management also depends on strong technological support.
Zhang Bingzhi, president of the China Land Surveying and Planning Institute, said China has established an integrated “air-space-ground” monitoring network. Using remote sensing, big data, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies, authorities are now able to dynamically and accurately monitor human activities within protected zones.
In east China’s Shandong province, newly developed rapid-recognition technologies can precisely detect illegal land-use activities. In Jiangxi province in east China, a field observation and research station in the Poyang Lake basin has accumulated millions of ecological data points to support policymaking.
This science-based supervision has effectively curbed illegal development and construction activities within protected areas.
The results are visible. According to the 2025 Blue Book of China’s Ecological Conservation Red Lines, since the implementation of the red line system, forest area within protected zones has increased by 3,344 square kilometers, while water areas have expanded by 320 square kilometers.
Meanwhile, urban and rural construction land inside protected zones has decreased by 6.5 square kilometers, and mining land has shrunk by 5.6 square kilometers.
Average vegetation coverage within ecological protection red lines has risen by 1.29 percent, while net primary productivity has increased by 2.22 percent. Ecological functions such as water conservation and soil retention have continued to improve steadily.