21st Century Coordination and Sustainable Development of the Yangtze Three Gorges Reservoir Area

Author: Wang Bing et al. / Country:
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Publishing Time: 2002-09-01
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2. Formulating measures to alleviate conflicts exacerbated by resource and environmental losses
The land resources below the 175-meter flood line in the Three Gorges Reservoir area have been submerged, intensifying conflicts between the population and land resources, environment, and land use space in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, thereby increasing the difficulties of its development. To address this situation, it is essential to formulate and implement practical measures to alleviate the intensifying conflicts. We know that land is a non-renewable resource. Once part of the land in the Three Gorges Reservoir area is submerged, it cannot be replenished or expanded in terms of new land or environmental capacity. Additionally, due to the natural geographical constraints of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, not only can the underutilized grasslands and slopes not be further developed, but many existing sloping farmlands must also be converted back to forests and grasslands. As a result, the available land resources for future development are very limited. Therefore, measures should be formulated to address the primary aspect of the conflict, specifically by alleviating the population pressure on the development of the Three Gorges Reservoir area and relocating as many people as possible out of the area. Currently, the relocation and out-migration policies implemented by the central government can fundamentally alleviate the conflicts arising from resource and environmental losses in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, thereby laying a solid foundation for its coordinated and sustainable development.
3. Reserving room for future development during the relocation and reconstruction of urban enterprises in the Three Gorges Reservoir area
The economic compensation provided by the state for the relocation and reconstruction of urban enterprises and industrial facilities below the flood line in the Three Gorges Reservoir area only covers the costs of restoring production capacity and does not include, nor can it include, the future development needs of these enterprises or the entire Three Gorges Reservoir area. The further construction and development of the Three Gorges Reservoir area in the future will depend on its own efforts and investment through accumulated funds. Therefore, the governments at all levels and industrial enterprises in the Three Gorges Reservoir area must have a clear understanding of the reconstruction guidance. During the relocation and reconstruction process, it is crucial to properly balance the current relocation and reconstruction, the rapid restoration of production, and future development. In the planning and design of the relocation and reconstruction, it is neither advisable to aim for immediate completion nor to set the restoration of existing production capacity as the ultimate goal. Instead, there should be room reserved for future development based on the current restoration of production capacity. This will enable urban enterprises to not only rebuild and resume production in a relatively short period but also have the potential for further development and utilization of infrastructure and facilities in the future, thereby avoiding the adverse consequences of short-sightedness leading to greater waste in future development.
4. Continuously adhering to the policy of nationwide support for the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir area
After the Three Gorges Project began, the central government formulated the policy of nationwide support for the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, which has achieved significant results. In the future, this policy should be continued. Departments at the central level, as well as provinces, municipalities, and enterprises and institutions, should do their best to establish connections with the Three Gorges Reservoir area based on the principle of mutual benefit, providing support in various aspects such as funds, markets, education, science and technology, talent, management, information, and materials. By adopting multiple approaches, they can assist the Three Gorges Reservoir area in completing its relocation tasks as soon as possible, achieving rapid economic development, and accelerating the coordinated and sustainable development of its society, thereby guiding the Three Gorges Reservoir area toward a path of coordinated and sustainable development.
Chapter 3: Population Factors in the Coordination and Sustainable Development of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area
People are the main subjects of social and economic life. The concept of coordination and sustainability essentially refers to the coordination and sustainability of human life. Therefore, the key to coordination and sustainable development lies in human development. To study a region's strategy for coordinated and sustainable development, it is first necessary to understand the history and current status of its population development.
I. The Relationship Between Population and Sustainable Development
In 1981, Lester R. Brown, director of the World Watch Institute in the United States, published the book Building a Sustainable Society, in which he elaborated on his understanding of sustainable society: "A sustainable society will differ from the one we live in today in some aspects. The population size will be stable, energy use will be much more efficient, and the economy will primarily rely on renewable energy sources for sustainability. As a result, the scope of human and industrial activities will be more dispersed, far less concentrated in cities compared to a society that relies on oil." Due to changes in the global economy and social conditions, particularly the deterioration of the environment, the issue of sustainable development has garnered common attention and concern from humanity, with the United Nations Environment and Development Commission playing a leading role.
In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development published the famous Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, which formally proposed the concept of "sustainable development." The publication of this report, along with the 1992 World Conference on Environment and Development, drew global attention to the issue of "sustainable development." Since the late 1980s of the 20th century, a large number of documents have emerged around this theme. On one hand, these documents have deepened and developed the perspective of sustainable development; on the other hand, the diverse understandings and interpretations have introduced some confusion and ambiguity to the new concept. Therefore, studying sustainable development requires first clarifying its definition and connotations.
Following the three questions about "production" proposed by Samuelson in his classic book Economics, we can also propose three questions about "sustainability": (1) What is sustainability? (2) For whom is sustainability? (3) Why is sustainability? What is sustainable development? What is the relationship between "sustainability" and "development"? In his book Development Economics, Grossman defined "development" as growth accompanied by change, with one fundamental change being the transformation of the economic structure during the growth process of real GDP per capita, including the decline in the proportion of agriculture and the rise in the proportion of industry in the national output, the increase in the share of urban population, and the gradual shift in consumption patterns from necessities to durable goods, leisure, and services. "Sustainability," on the other hand, refers to an uninterrupted, continuous process (or condition) that can be maintained indefinitely without decay. Therefore, sustainable development is a concept of temporal continuity and spatial interconnection.
Currently, there are varying understandings and interpretations of "sustainable development" among different international circles. Some emphasize the environment, others the economy, and others the society. Different documents offer different definitions of sustainable development. For example, the Brundtland Report defines sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This definition emphasizes intergenerational equity in the use of natural resources. The International Union for Conservation of Nature defines sustainable development as "improving the quality of human life within the carrying capacity of the ecosystem." The first definition involves the entire economic system, while the second definition focuses solely on the ecological aspect of sustainability. Lele (1991) proposed a more specific and broader definition: sustainable development is a process that ensures the continuous continuation of the fundamental capacity for human life in terms of economy, society, and ecology. In other words, society, economy, and ecology must develop in a coordinated manner to achieve a virtuous cycle. Currently, most of the world's poor populations live in fragile ecosystems, where poverty and environmental degradation often reinforce each other. Therefore, this trinity definition is of great significance.
Regardless of how sustainable development is interpreted, population is always one of the primary factors. Long before the concept of sustainable development was formally introduced, population issues had already attracted significant attention from human society. Since the 1970s, discussions on "population and development" at several important international conferences in the field of population studies have outlined the basic framework of the relationship between population and sustainable development.
At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the Action Programme of the International Conference on Population and Development explicitly stated that "sustainable development is centered on people."