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Summary of China's National General Land Use Planning Framework (2006-2020)
On October 6, 2009, China's State Council passed the new "National General Land Use Planning Framework (2006-2020)" proposed by the Ministry of Land and Resources. This is to replace the old version National General Land Use Planning published in 1997.
Following China's basic strategy in promoting rational land consumption and farmland protection, national level management of land development and conservation, and land use-related principles in "China Land Administration Act", this Framework states national land use strategies, specifies government's goals and regulatory tools in managing land use, and guides the society to conserve and utilize land resources in a rational manner. It is the strictest document in institutionalizing land management and is also an important guideline for implementing large-scale land use control and urban-rural planning and development.
The scope of the Framework is from 2005 to 2020 and covers all land areas of China except Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.
This Framework includes seven chapters. The first chapter describes current land use condition and challenges. The second chapter outlines planning goals and five objectives. The following five chapters address approaches to each of the five objectives.
After the adoption and implementation of the 1997 National General Land Use Plan, land use control system has been set up and it is effective in controlling and guiding land use. Farmland protection, especially agricultural land protection, has been strengthened; second/third industry production rate per unit of developed land has increased; government investment in converting developed land back to farmland has been increased and basically reached the equilibrium between new development land and back-converted land; ecological environment has been improved.
However, challenges are still intense—China is still at a critical point that a large population depends on limited amount of exploitable land. In 2005, per capita agricultural land was only 1.4 mu (亩, less than a quarter acre), less than 40% of world average. Among all agricultural land, there is only one-third good quality land. Potential backup which could be converted to agricultural land is limited and mostly distributed in areas whose conditions do not fit conversion or development. Amount of prime agricultural land has been decreasing while the growth of industry land is at an accelerated rate. Waste of development land, urban or rural, permitted or not, can still be seen commonly. In certain areas, land degradation and pollution are severe. Illegal use/development of land is still a nationwide phenomenon.
By 2020, China's total population will reach 1.45 billion and urbanization rate will be 58%. Land resources, either farmland or developable land, face huge pressure. Following this projection, there are five objectives specified in this planning document:
Tables in appendix also provide figures for 2010 and 2020 for planned amount of different types of land such as agriculture, prime agriculture, development, and forest for the nation and each province.
The full Chinese version of the document can be found at the website of the Ministry of Land and Resources.