High-Quality Construction of National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zones

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “Continue to effectively address prominent environmental issues and build national ecological civilization pilot zones with high quality.” The construction of national ecological civilization pilot zones is a major strategic deployment made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. The “Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development,” adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC [1]1 The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC: A meeting of the Communist Party of China’s top leadership, held in 2025, which discussed and adopted recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030)., proposed: “Continue to build national ecological civilization pilot zones, establish pioneer zones for a Beautiful China, and create highlands for green development.” The construction of national ecological civilization pilot zones carries the important mission of adhering to and expanding the path of modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature. It serves as a “reform experimental field” for resolving deep-seated contradictions in ecological civilization construction and a “pioneering demonstration window” for building a Beautiful China. It holds significant theoretical value and practical significance for achieving high-quality development.

习近平总书记强调：“持续抓好突出环境问题整治，高质量建设国家生态文明试验区。”建设国家生态文明试验区，是以习近平同志为核心的党中央作出的重大战略部署。党的二十届四中全会通过的《中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十五个五年规划的建议》提出：“持续建设国家生态文明试验区，建设美丽中国先行区，打造绿色发展高地。”建设国家生态文明试验区承载着坚持和拓展人与自然和谐共生的现代化道路的重要使命，是破解生态文明建设深层次矛盾的“改革试验田”，是建设美丽中国的“先行示范窗”，对于实现高质量发展具有重要的理论价值与实践意义。

Green development is the distinctive hallmark of Chinese-path modernization, and the construction of national ecological civilization pilot zones is an important manifestation of practicing the concept of green development. Adhering to green development requires breaking free from the shackles of traditional development concepts, thoroughly transforming the extensive development model characterized by high consumption, high emissions, and high pollution, consciously confining economic activities and human behavior within the limits that natural resources and the ecological environment can bear, and achieving a fundamental change in development philosophy. The construction of national ecological civilization pilot zones, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, integrates the theory and practice of ecological civilization construction, concentrates on carrying out comprehensive experiments in ecological civilization system reform, takes the advancement of the modernization of the ecological environment governance system and governance capacity as the driving force, strives to eliminate institutional and mechanistic obstacles, deeply integrates the concept of green development into the entire process and all aspects of economic and social development, and injects lasting ecological momentum into high-quality development. The practical exploration of constructing national ecological civilization pilot zones concerns the overall development situation and is a complex systemic project. It is necessary to adhere to a systemic perspective, problem orientation, and innovation-driven development, continuously deepen the understanding of the laws of ecological civilization construction in practice, and build national ecological civilization pilot zones with high quality.

绿色发展是中国式现代化的鲜明底色，建设国家生态文明试验区是践行绿色发展理念的重要体现。坚持绿色发展，要求打破传统发展理念束缚，彻底改变高消耗、高排放、高污染的粗放发展方式，自觉把经济活动、人的行为限制在自然资源和生态环境能够承受的限度内，实现了发展理念的根本性变革。建设国家生态文明试验区，就是在习近平生态文明思想指引下，把生态文明建设理论与实践结合起来，集中开展生态文明体制改革综合试验，以推进生态环境治理体系和治理能力现代化为牵引，着力破除体制机制障碍，将绿色发展理念深度融入经济社会发展全过程、各方面，为高质量发展注入持久生态动能。建设国家生态文明试验区的实践探索关乎发展全局，是一项复杂的系统工程。必须坚持系统观念、问题导向、创新驱动，在实践中不断深化对生态文明建设规律的认识，高质量建设国家生态文明试验区。

Take institutional innovation as the starting point to coordinate protection and development. Correctly handling the relationship between ecological protection and economic development is a practical issue that must be confronted in the process of Chinese-path modernization. Misguided concepts formed under the traditional development model, such as “treat pollution after it occurs” and “prioritize development over protection,” have led to increasingly prominent contradictions between ecological protection and economic development. National ecological civilization pilot zones are national-level comprehensive experimental platforms for ecological civilization system reform. In practical exploration, they consistently take institutional innovation as the starting point. Through a series of reform measures—such as constructing an evaluation system for ecological civilization construction goals, improving a comprehensive and systematic performance evaluation, assessment, and accountability system for ecological civilization, and perfecting the property rights system for natural resources—they strive to break the path dependence on the traditional development model, promote the formation of a virtuous cycle of “high-level protection—high-quality development—benefits for the whole society,” and find the point of integration between ecological protection and economic development. For example, Fujian, as the first national ecological civilization pilot zone, canceled the GDP assessment ranking for 34 key ecological function zone counties (cities and districts) in the province, shifting the assessment focus to ecological protection and the increase of urban and rural residents’ income. This type of institutional innovation drives the transformation of the development model, powerfully proving that ecological protection and economic development are not mutually opposed but can promote and complement each other. To build national ecological civilization pilot zones with high quality, it is necessary to further explore and construct an ecological civilization institutional system with clear guidance, scientific decision-making, effective implementation, and strong incentives, and through piloting and experimentation, create more replicable and scalable institutional achievements.

以制度创新为抓手，统筹保护发展。正确处理好生态保护和经济发展的关系，是中国式现代化进程必须面对的现实课题。传统发展模式下形成的“先污染后治理”“重发展轻保护”等错误观念，导致生态保护和经济发展之间的矛盾日益突出。国家生态文明试验区是生态文明体制改革的国家级综合试验平台，在实践探索中始终以制度创新为抓手，通过构建生态文明建设目标评价体系、健全系统完整的生态文明绩效评价考核与责任追究制度、完善自然资源产权体系等一系列改革举措，着力破除对传统发展模式的路径依赖，推动形成“高水平保护—高质量发展—全社会受益”的良性循环，找到了生态保护和经济发展的结合点。比如，福建作为首个国家生态文明试验区，取消了全省34个重点生态功能区县（市）GDP考核排名，把考核重点放在生态保护和城乡居民增收上。这类制度创新推动发展方式变革，有力证明生态保护与经济发展并非相互对立，而是能够相互促进、相得益彰。高质量建设国家生态文明试验区，要进一步探索构建导向清晰、决策科学、执行有力、激励有效的生态文明制度体系，通过先行先试，创造更多可复制、可推广的制度成果。

Take green technology as the support to promote green transformation. High-quality development is development in which green development becomes a universal form, conducive to achieving the organic unity of development quality, development efficiency, and ecological sustainability. Greening and low-carbonization are inherent requirements of high-quality development. Building national ecological civilization pilot zones with high quality means accelerating the cultivation of new drivers for green development, promoting the transformation of production methods and consumption patterns, and better converting ecological advantages into development advantages. High-quality construction of national ecological civilization pilot zones must vigorously develop green productive forces, accelerate green technological innovation and the promotion and application of advanced green technologies, improve resource utilization efficiency, reduce the resource and environmental costs of development, and promote a comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. For example, Guizhou continues to advance the construction of national ecological civilization pilot zones. Relying on national science and technology plans, it supports eligible ecological civilization technological innovations, promotes breakthroughs in key, common, and core technologies in priority areas and the demonstration application of achievements, and promotes the establishment of a technological support system integrating the industry-university-research of green technological innovation and the industrialization of technological innovation achievements, adding “wings” of green technology to ecological civilization construction. Focusing on key areas such as ecological environmental protection, energy resource conservation and intensive utilization, and the promotion of green and low-carbon lifestyles, it continuously increases investment in green technology research and development, better leverages the role of information technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence in ecological environment governance, supports breakthroughs in key core technologies and the transformation of achievements, and makes green technology a strong support for green transformation.

以绿色科技为支撑，促进绿色转型。高质量发展是绿色发展成为普遍形态的发展，有利于实现发展质量、发展效益与生态可持续性的有机统一。绿色化、低碳化是高质量发展的内在要求。高质量建设国家生态文明试验区，就是要加快培育绿色发展新动能，促进生产方式与消费模式变革，将生态优势更好转化为发展优势。高质量建设国家生态文明试验区必须大力发展绿色生产力，加快绿色科技创新和先进绿色技术推广应用，提高资源利用效率、降低发展的资源环境成本，促进经济社会发展全面绿色转型。比如，贵州持续推进国家生态文明试验区建设，依托国家科技计划，支持符合条件的生态文明科技创新，推动重点领域关键共性核心技术突破和成果应用示范，推动建立绿色科技创新产学研一体化和科技创新成果产业化技术支撑体系，为生态文明建设插上绿色科技的“翅膀”。聚焦生态环境保护、能源资源节约集约利用、绿色低碳生活方式推广等重点领域，持续加大绿色科技研发投入力度，更好发挥大数据、人工智能等信息技术在生态环境治理中的作用，支持关键核心技术攻关与成果转化，使绿色科技成为绿色转型的有力支撑。

Take the well-being of the people as the pursuit to demonstrate ecology serving the people. Adhering to a people-centered approach is the fundamental stance of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era. A sound ecological environment is the most inclusive form of public well-being. Building national ecological civilization pilot zones with high quality must consistently adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, take green transformation as the direction, aim to improve people’s livelihoods, focus on resolving prominent environmental issues of concern to the people, continuously and deeply advance the fight against pollution and ecosystem optimization, build a production and living environment suitable for living and working, and enable the people to gain tangible and perceptible well-being from the improvement of the ecological environment. For example, Hainan strives to build national ecological civilization pilot zones. By formulating and implementing the pilot plan for the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park system, establishing a unified management agency for the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, and implementing projects to improve the living environment of communities and villages within the national park, it has not only enhanced the efficiency of ecological environment governance but also better activated the ecological value of the tropical rainforest, enhancing people’s well-being. Such reform measures allow the people to obtain tangible ecological dividends from seeing greenery outside their windows and living in comfortable surroundings, vividly interpreting the adherence to the people-centered development philosophy. To ensure the steady and sustained high-quality construction of national ecological civilization pilot zones, it is necessary to base efforts on regional resource endowments and development realities, coordinate the systematic governance of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, deeply fight the battles to defend blue skies, clear waters, and clean soil, continuously improve the quality of the ecological environment, enrich the supply of ecological products, and allow the achievements of ecological civilization construction to benefit all the people more and more fairly.

以民生福祉为追求，彰显生态为民。坚持以人民为中心，是新时代坚持和发展中国特色社会主义的根本立场。良好的生态环境是最普惠的民生福祉。高质量建设国家生态文明试验区，必须始终坚持以人民为中心的发展思想，以绿色转型为方向，以改善民生为目的，聚焦解决人民群众关心的突出环境问题，持续深入推进污染防治攻坚和生态系统优化，构建宜居宜业的生产生活环境，让人民群众在生态环境改善中获得切身可感的福祉。比如，海南着力打造国家生态文明试验区，通过制定实施海南热带雨林国家公园体制试点方案，组建海南热带雨林国家公园统一管理机构，实施国家公园社区和园内村庄人居环境整治项目，不仅提升了生态环境治理效能，也更好激活了热带雨林的生态价值，增进了民生福祉。这类改革举措让人民群众在推窗见绿、安居休憩中获得实实在在的生态红利，生动诠释了坚持以人民为中心的发展思想。确保高质量建设国家生态文明试验区行稳致远，要立足区域资源禀赋与发展实际，统筹山水林田湖草沙系统治理，深入打好蓝天、碧水、净土保卫战，不断改善生态环境质量，丰富生态产品供给，让生态文明建设成果更多更公平惠及全体人民。

(The author is a research fellow at the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Research Institute, Peking University)

（作者为北京大学习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究院研究员）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧