Ecological compensation is a new mechanism being tried by the
State Environmental Protection Administration to further contain
pollution by increasing the cost of discharging pollutants and
rewarding conservation.
Such a mechanism was introduced in the 1990s on a trial basis to
collect ecological compensation fees in 685 counties and 24
State-level nature reserves.
This time, the environmental watchdog, in cooperation with other
state departments, will further push the fledgling mechanism on a
trial basis in the hope of establishing a sound system
nationwide.
Underscoring this mechanism is the principle that polluters must
pay for the damage done to the environment and those who have
contributed to conserving the ecology at the expense of economic
gains must be reasonably compensated.
The message is that any form of the environment - rivers,
forest, underground water or soil - is not free for polluters to
pollute. This is because they are making a fortune in the
process.
Another message is companies that have spent much money in
treating their waste before dumping it have contributed to
environmental protection and should be compensated because their
cost of production is much higher than their counterparts which
have not spent as much in pollutant treatment.
But it is easier said than done. The fact that such a practice
has been on trial for so many years and a sound system is still yet
to be established speaks volumes for the complications in
formulating rules and implementing the scheme.
First of all, we do not have unified standards for collecting
ecological compensation fees. For example, we must have
quantitative standards to charge polluters for the degree of
pollution.
Furthermore, detailed laws or related administrative regulations
are yet to be made to regulate as much as possible the entire
process from the charging of fees to the use of the fund from
collected fees and to the compensation of those that have
contributed to environmental protection.
In addition, both transparency and effective supervision
measures must guarantee that the money is used for the purpose it
is intended for.
(China Daily September 13, 2007)
