Expand the "Two Mountains" Conversion Pathway to Promote Rural Ecological Revitalization

 

Ecological revitalization is one of the "five revitalizations" in rural areas and serves as a crucial junction between the rural revitalization strategy and the ecological civilization construction strategy. A sound ecological environment is the greatest advantage and precious wealth of the countryside. When the rural ecological environment is well-preserved, the land will bear "golden treasures," and the ecology will transform into a "money tree." The pastoral scenery, lakes and mountains, and beautiful villages can become "treasure troves." Ecological agriculture, forest therapy, rural tourism, and other industries will flourish.

 

To strengthen rural revitalization, it is necessary to enhance ecological protection and restoration in rural areas, continuously improve the living environment, integrate ecological governance with the development of characteristic industries, and expand industries such as organic agricultural production, rural tourism, and leisure agriculture. This will widen the pathways for converting green water and lush mountains into “Jinshanyingshan” (gold and silver mountains), achieving a synchronized increase in ecological "gold content" and development "green content."

 

Explore the "Ecological Restoration +" model to enhance rural ecological welfare. This model targets rural areas where natural ecosystems are damaged or ecological functions are lacking. It integrates ecological restoration with ecological benefits for the people, adheres to the integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, and develops livelihood industries according to local conditions. By combining ecological restoration with ecological industry development, it attaches the value of ecological products to the value of agricultural, industrial, and service products, achieving an organic unity of wealth for the people and beauty of ecology. For example, the Jia Wang District in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, has transformed the coal mining subsidence area of Pan'an Lake into a national wetland park, providing high-quality ecological products for the surrounding areas and driving green industrial transformation and rural revitalization, achieving comprehensive benefits of ecology, economy, and society.

 

Explore the "Environmental Remediation +" model to create livable and business-friendly beautiful villages. This model targets rural areas with poor living environments, learns from the "million project" experience, takes the implementation of rural living environment remediation projects as a starting point, and aims to build beautiful villages. It integrates environmental remediation with facility construction, industry development, and rural civilization, addressing key minor issues related to farmers' production and life, such as toilets, sewage, and garbage, enhancing the beautiful "appearance" of villages, cultivating characteristic ecological industries, and turning "beautiful scenery" into a "good prospect" for rural revitalization. For example, Anji County in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, has implemented the "million project" for over 20 years, transforming all villages into beautiful ones. At the same time, it actively develops sightseeing tourism and promotes the development of related industries such as tea, exploring a path of green, low-carbon, and high-quality development for rural revitalization.

 

Explore the "Ecological Agriculture +" model to promote the integrated development of rural industries. This model targets rural areas with prominent agricultural non-point source pollution. According to the principles of ecological engineering, it promotes integrated planting and breeding, ecological and healthy breeding, and advances intensive use of agricultural resources, reduction of inputs, resource utilization of waste, and ecologicalization of industry models. Meanwhile, relying on high-quality agricultural products, beautiful natural environment, and characteristic cultural tourism resources, it implements deep integration projects of agriculture, culture, and tourism, develops characteristic ecological industries, creates local brand names, develops new types of ecological tourism, increases the added value of agricultural products and farmers' income, and promotes the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. For example, Jintan Town in Wuzhong District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, relies on location advantages, characteristic products, and historical culture to develop ecological agriculture, create brands such as Dongting Mountain Biluochun, and cultivate agricultural experiences and cultural tourism, achieving deep integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism.

 

Explore the "Clean Energy +" model to add green new momentum to rural areas. This model, based on the advantages of abundant clean energy and ample land resources, implements rural photovoltaic and biomass energy projects to transform clean energy advantages into industrial development advantages, helping local people increase their income and wealth locally and supporting the national "dual carbon" strategy. In terms of the "photovoltaic +" model, it uses building roofs, courtyard open spaces, facility agriculture, and idle collective land to promote photovoltaic power development through rooftop photovoltaics, agri-photovoltaics, pastoral photovoltaics, and fishery photovoltaics, injecting green new momentum into rural revitalization. In terms of biomass utilization, it uses manure and straw to develop biogas and biogas, helping to improve the living environment and serve heating energy needs. For example, the photovoltaic-complementary project in Wangtang Village, Wengtian Town, Wenchang City, Hainan Province, integrates "photovoltaics + industry" across borders, providing green electricity while developing the abandoned land under photovoltaic panels into a vegetable base, enhancing land resource efficiency and driving local employment.

 

Explore the "Institutional Innovation +" model to accelerate the appreciation of rural natural capital. This model targets rural areas with excellent ecological environments and abundant ecological products. By establishing systems such as resource rights trading and ecological compensation, it addresses issues of "difficulty in measuring, mortgaging, trading, and cashing" ecological products. In terms of rights trading, by government control or setting quotas, it improves trading mechanisms for carbon rights, energy rights, water rights, and pollution discharge rights, creating demand for ecological product trading and guiding and incentivizing stakeholders to trade. In terms of ecological compensation, following the principle of "who benefits, compensates; who protects, receives compensation," governments or ecological beneficiary areas purchase ecological products from ecological protection areas through financial compensation and industrial support. For example, Wuyi County in Longyan City, Fujian Province, took the lead in the country to carry out forest rights mortgage loans, exploring the utilization of forest space and developing the forest economy and ecological tourism, turning barren hills into "green hills," enabling farmers to hold "gold hills," providing a "backing" for development, and achieving "forest land as shares, farmers as shareholders, and shared benefits."