Ecological Civilization Construction in China: Origins, Concepts and Paths

This paper is a first step towards articulating a Chinese version of ecological civilization construction (short for ECC). Three major intellectual sources of ecological civilization are identified and the constraints from resources and environment on economic development are emphasized. The concept framework of ECC contains four aspects: the subjects, the objects, the means and the scope. The subjects have five main types: the governments, the entrepreneurs, the families, the NGOs and other mixed ones. The objects involve in various type of ecosystems, The means can be used by education, plan, institution, technology and fund. The scope is stratified five spatial levels: the earth, the nations, the regions, the prefectures, and the communities. Moreover, four paths of ECC are highlighted: resources conservation and saving, environmental protection and improvement, ecological protection and restoration and territorial development and protection. Introduction Under the background of Eighteen People's Congresses proposing “Promote the construction of ecological civilization”, ECC in China is placed on unprecedented heights. This endeavor marked the application of ecological civilization entered the fast lane and received the widespread attention of the world. Some academics aimed at connotation, characteristics or status of ecological civilization, but these still stayed in the stage of theoretical discussion[1-4]. From the angle of the construction, we should address three main questions: what is the background of ECC in China or how does ECC come from? What is ECC conformed to China’s actual conditions? How ECC is to be operated and what agendas or paths should be served? The origins of ECC in China The ECC in China is not suddenly proposed but experienced a process and is still ongoing with the times. The term of “ecological civilization” was officially proposed at the first time in 2005, and then it was taken as one of the goals of building a well-off society in an all-around way in 2007. The ECC was stressed at the same height as economic construction, political development, culture construction and social construction at the Fourth Plenary Session of 17th CPC Central Committee in 2009, after that the significance of ECC was emphasized again at the fifth plenary session of the 17th CPC Central Committee in 2010. ECC was promoted to be in a prominent position at Eighteen People's Congresses for the attribute closely related to people’s well-being and nation’s future. It pointed out ECC should be taken seriously and play the basic and oriented function though every aspects of economy, society, culture, livelihoods, resources and environment in late 2012. As can be seen from the above, ECC has an increasing status and requires a systematic theory to guide practices. In order to clarify the Chinese interpretation of ECC, a preliminary overview of its emerging background should be primarily presented. The theoretical origins. The theoretical origins mainly come from three aspects: Firstly, Chinese ecology view is one of the origins. Compared to westerners, Chinese have a special understanding of ecology. Ecology in the west is commonly a scientific word. the term “ecology” and “civilization” are usually separate in the west. Westerners take nature as a starting point to discuss the relationship between human and nature and consider humans and its social system as a subsystem of natural ecosystem. It is closely related to evolutionary biology, genetics, and ethnology. However, Chinese focus ecology on the harmony between humans and nature from the angle of human development. Ecology in China indicates a state of harmony, mostly used to describe the niceness or beauties. Therefore, “ecology civilization” are easily together in China. Secondly, Marxism environmental philosophy is another essential origin. Marxist environmental philosophy covers the scientific practical view and the conception that the human and the nature should be harmonious. The former is of great significance to the generation of EEC. “Practical human view of nature" is the essence of Marxist view of nature, which differed from other old philosophy. It reveals the dialectical unity between man and nature relationship. For human practices, especially production practices, fundamental changes have taken place between human and nature. Nature is not only the object of human practices but also restricts the social development. Marxism environmental philosophy emphasizes the active function of human beings to nature, but does not ignore the restriction from the nature. Thirdly, Chinese harmonious culture is also an important origin. Chinese harmonious culture symbolizes “heaven and man” theory, which is widely reflected in the Confucianism, Taoism, etc. Laozi demonstrated that human is consistent with heaven, heaven with earth, earth with essence and essence with nature. Mencius pointed out that farming should be in the right season, catching fish should not use tiny nets. Under the influence of these thoughts, the first act Zhoushu about environment protection were promulgated in Zhou dynasty, which mentioned “Yu ban”, that told us agricultural production should follow the law of nature, “don’t enter into the forest to cut the trees down but let them grow free in March, and don’t go to the rivers to net fishing but let fish grow well in June. After that, environment protection acts were published in succession, that contributed to the balance of the ecological environment and the sustainability of the Chinese civilization. The current settings. ECC is a urgent mission in the current settings, which is facing great pressure from three aspects: Firstly, Natural resources restriction. China’s natural resources are abundant in terms of the gross amount, but low in per capita quantity. The per capita fresh water, arable land and forest resources account for 28%, 40% and 25% of the world average, respectively. The per capita recoverable reserves of oil, iron oil and copper are 7.7%,17% and 17% of the world’s average, respectively [5].With the rapid growth of the economy and the industrialization rate , there are some changes in natural resources on economic development: Firstly, local restriction turns into overall restriction. The number of provinces faced natural resource shortages have increased rapidly in the past few years: coal shortages occurred in 19 provinces in 1990 up to 23 provinces in 2009; oil shortages occurred in 14 provinces in 1990 up to 23 provinces in 2009; gas shortages occurred in 25 provinces in 2009, up 20 provinces in 1990(See Table 1).Furthermore,the number of provinces of abundant water resources reduced by 4 and extreme water shortages area increased by 2. Secondly, temporary constraints turns into long-term constraints. Flow constraints of Resource caused by technology and cost has become stock constraints [6].With the decline of non-renewable resources stock, mineral resources mining life is shortening quickly, the increasing growth of ratio of dependence on foreign energy has exceeded 15% in 2010 from less than 10% in 2001.Thirdly, individual restriction turns into systematic restriction. The constraints of land has influenced food security, and then it runs to lag the development of the city. Not only is water restricted by availability and quality but also it is restricted by function, ecology and institution. Fourthly, elastic constraints turns into rigid constraints. In 2008, the per capita Ecological Footprint in China was 2.1 gha or 80% of the global average. However, this has already exceeded the global sustainability threshold and is over two times the available per capita bio capacity in China. In view of its huge population, the total Ecological Footprint of China is the largest in the world[7]. Fifthly, recessive restrictions turns into overt restrictions. 62 percent of the country's major rivers have been seriously polluted, 90 percent of waterways flowing through urban areas are contaminated, more than 300 million residents are yet to have clean water to drink, and quite a number of localities fail to fulfill the required quotas for pollutant emission reduction and energy saving. Table 1, Number of provinces occurring energy shortage in 20 years and water shortage in 10 years Type of shortage 199