Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment ("MEE") and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs ("MARA") have jointly distributed the Action Plan for the Tough Battle of Cleaning up Pollution from Agriculture and Rural Areas (the "Plan").
The Plan sets the goals of achieving faster progress in the green development of rural areas, making a marked improvement in rural ecological environment, basically forming systems and mechanisms for the clean-up of pollution from agriculture and rural areas, dramatically strengthening environmental oversight, and greatly arousing the enthusiasm and initiative of rural residents for participating in agricultural and rural environmental protection, through a three-year tough battle. To achieve this end, the Plan lays down a series of tasks, including "better protecting sources of drinking water in rural areas", "making faster progress in cleaning up household garbage and sewage in rural areas", "making great efforts to cope with pollution caused by the breeding industry", "effectively preventing and controlling pollution caused by the planting industry" and "enhancing capacity for environmental oversight over agriculture and rural areas". Among others, the Plan expressly states that, efforts shall be made to hold firm to ecological protection red lines, put in place requirements for the management and control of ecological protection red lines, establish the county-based negative list of access to agricultural sectors, and work out a catalog of sectors, the development of which is restricted or prohibited, in consideration of local situations. Activities for the urbanization or industrialization purposes are banned in areas within ecological protection red lines, and existing arable land shall not be expanded without approval.