A boatman works at the demonstration area in the Yangtze River Delta on ecologically friendly development in Jiashan, East China's Zhejiang Province on August 23, 2022. After several years of steady progress, the area has become a model of ecological beauty. Photo: IC

The legislation on eco-conservation has made progress in terms of quantity and quality, and China's environmental protection has seen transformative and comprehensive changes in the past decade, with the country's legal system for ecological and environmental protection taking shape.

Zang Tiewei, a spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, China's top legislature, said on Monday's press conference that the legal system includes the Environmental Protection Law, which plays a fundamental and comprehensive role, as well as specialized laws in the environmental protection sector including pollution prevention and control laws for air, water, solid waste, soil and noise, as well as for ocean, wetland, grassland, and forest and desert ecosystems.

Also, the system includes legislation for the protection of the environment in specific geographical areas or watersheds. The innovative efforts have been undertaken to improve and develop China's ecological and environmental protection legal system, such as the laws on Yangtze River protection and black soil conservation, which have been promulgated, as well as draft laws on the protection of the Yellow River and ecological conservation on the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau, which have been submitted for deliberation, according to Zang.

The legal system for ecological and environmental protection has played a vital role in pollution prevention and control and environmental protection, as well as in the efforts to maintain "blue skies and clean waters" in the country, Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"China's ecological and environmental protection indeed has seen historic and transformative changes in the past decade," Ma said.

China has become the nation with the fastest progress in air quality improvement in the past decade.

The Standing Committee of the 13th NPC will convene its 37th session from Wednesday to Sunday in Beijing.

The third version of the draft law on the protection of the Yellow River will be submitted to the standing committee for deliberation, said Zang. This version of the draft law improves the principles and requirements for ecological protection and the high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, and strengthens the intensive use of water resources, including enhancing the construction of agricultural water-conservation facilities, according to Zang.

Known as the mother river by all Chinese people, the Yellow River has seen huge improvement in its environment after conservation efforts in the past decade, Ma noted. But it's still necessary to have laws on the protection of the 5,464-kilometer river, for instance, to coordinate all provinces and regions the river runs through, according to Ma.

"Through the treatment from the source, the overall water quality of the Yellow River has shown a turn for the better and shown considerable improvement, especially in the main stream," Ma said.

Li Junsheng, a research fellow from the Natural Resources Comprehensive Survey Command Center of the China Geological Survey, echoed Ma. Li told the Global Times on Tuesday that many places, which used to suffer from sandstorms, and saline and alkali soils, have recovered gradually.

Li said the country has made a lot of efforts in terms of ecological protection during the past decade such as establishing nature reserves and strengthening legislative protection of the environment. "The better and improved the law, the more it will promote ecological protection," Li noted.