Measures for the Protection and Utilization of Coastlines
(Issued by the State Oceanic Administration in 2017)

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 For the purposes of implementing the requirements of the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Accelerating the Advancement of the Ecological Civilization Construction, the Notice on Issuing the Overall Plan for the Reform of the Ecological Civilization System, and the Notice of the General Council on Issuing the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan, giving priority to the protection of the marine ecological environment, strengthening the protection and utilization of coastlines, realizing the management and control objectives of the retention rate of natural coastlines, and building a scientific and rational pattern of the natural coastlines, these Measures are developed.

Article 2 The protection, utilization, rectification and repair of Chinese continental coastlines shall be governed by these Measures.
For the purposes of these Measures, “natural coastlines” means the coastlines formed by sea-land interaction, including sandy shorelines, muddy shorelines, bedrock shorelines, biological shorelines and other native shorelines.
Coastlines that have the morphological characteristics and ecological functions of natural coastlines after rectification and repair shall be incorporated into the management and control objectives of natural coastlines.

Article 3 The protection and utilization of coastlines shall be conducted under the principles of giving priority to protection, economical utilization, overall planning for land and marine development, scientific rectification, green sharing, and military and civilian integration. Natural coastlines shall be strictly protected, damaged shorelines shall be rectified and repaired, sea space for the public shall be expanded so as to be combined with the management of the coastal waters and coastal land environment and to realize the unity of the economic, social, ecological and military benefits from the protection and utilization of coastlines.

Article 4 The State Oceanic Administration shall take the lead in the direction, coordination, supervision and administration with respect to the protection and utilization of the coastlines across the country. The relevant departments under the State Council shall, according to their respective functions, effectively conduct relevant management work in the protection and utilization of the coastlines.
The State Oceanic Administration shall, in conjunction with the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission and the Department of Defense Mobilization, establish a coordination mechanism for the protection and utilization of coastlines, make overall plans for the military safety, development and utilization, and effectively protect the utilization of coastlines for the purpose of military facilities in a coordinated manner.
Coastal provincial people's governments shall be responsible for the supervision and administration in the protection and utilization of coastlines within their respective administrative regions, realize the management and control objectives of the retention rate of natural coastlines, establish a responsibility system for the management and control objectives of the retention rate of natural coastlines, reasonably determine the assessment indicators, and incorporate the protection of natural coastlines into the government performance examination of the coastal local people's governments.

Article 5 Rules shall be developed regarding the control of the retention rate of natural coastlines. By the year 2020, the retention rate of natural coastlines across the country shall not be lower than 35%, excluding the shorelines of oceanic islands.

Article 6 The State Oceanic Administration shall develop the specifications for the investigation and statistics of coastlines, and coastal provincial competent administrative departments of marine affairs shall organize and implement the investigation of coastline resources, recognition of the natural coastlines and statistics of the retention rate.

Article 7 The State Oceanic Administration shall organize the repair and survey of coastlines in a unified manner. The provincial competent administrative departments of marine affairs shall, in conjunction with other relevant departments, conduct repair and survey of coastlines, and the repair and survey results shall be issued upon examination by the State Oceanic Administration and approval by the provincial people's governments.

Chapter II Categorized Protection of Shorelines

Article 8 The state shall implement categorized protection and utilization of coastlines. According to the conditions and development degree of the natural resources of coastlines, it is divided into three categories including strict protection, restricted development and optimized utilization.
The protection and utilization of coastlines managed and used by the army shall be incorporated into the scope of the protection and utilization of coastlines of the state.

Article 9 Natural coastlines which are intact in natural forms and have prominent ecological functions and resource value shall be categorized as shorelines subject to strict protection, mainly including the shorelines where high quality beaches, typical geological physiognomy landscape, important coastal wetlands, mangroves, and coral reefs, etc., are located.
Shorelines subject to strict protection shall be subdivided under the relevant requirements for the red line of ecological protection, and the provincial people's governments shall issue a list of coastal segments subject to strict protection within their respective administrative regions, specify the protection borders, and set up protection signs.
Unless it is required for the purpose of national defense, it shall be prohibited to construct permanent buildings, reclaim the sea, exploit sea sand, set up sewage outlets, etc., that may damage the coastal topography and ecological environment within the protection scope of the shorelines subject to strict protection.

Article 10 Coastlines whose natural form is basically in good shape, that have relatively sound ecological functions and resource value, and have relatively low degree of development and utilization shall be classified as shorelines subject to restricted development.
For shorelines subject to restricted development, development and utilization activities that may change the natural form of coastlines and affect the ecological functions of coastlines shall be strictly controlled, the future development space shall be reserved, and the use of sea areas shall be subject to strict approval.

Article 11 Coastlines with relatively high artificialization degree and relatively better conditions for the protection, development and utilization of coasts shall be classified as shorelines subject to optimized utilization, mainly including shorelines where industrial, urban, and port shipping facilities are located.
For the shorelines subject to optimized utilization, centralized layout of construction projects that indeed need to occupy coastlines shall be conducted, the length of shorelines to be occupied shall be strictly controlled, the investment intensity and utilization efficiency shall be improved, and the coastline development and utilization pattern shall be optimized.

Article 12 The State Oceanic Administration shall, in conjunction with other relevant departments, develop the plans and technical specifications for the protection and utilization of coastlines, and direct and supervise the development of the plans for the protection and utilization of coastlines at the provincial level.
The competent administrative departments of marine affairs at the provincial level shall, in conjunction with relevant departments, organize the development of the plans for the protection and utilization of coastlines and implement them after they have been approved by the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. Planning environmental impact assessment shall be conducted for the development of the plans for the protection and utilization of coastlines; and where military facilities utilize coastlines, the opinions of the relevant military organs shall be solicited.
An overall plan for land utilization, urban and rural planning, the plans for ports, comprehensive plans for river basins, plans for flood control, plans for harnessing these estuaries and other relevant plans involving the protection and utilization of coastlines shall satisfy the management requirements for the retention rate of natural coastlines.

Chapter III Economical Utilization of Shorelines

Article 13 The competent administrative departments of marine affairs at the provincial level shall, according to the plans for the protection and utilization of coastlines, the status quo of the development and utilization of the coastlines, and the management and control objectives of the retention rate of natural coastlines in the respective provinces, develop their own annual plans for the protection and control of natural coastlines, and break them down and implement them.

Article 14 The occupation of natural coastlines by the construction projects shall be strictly restricted and the construction projects that indeed need to occupy natural coastlines shall be subject to strict review and approval. The conclusions on the necessity and reasonableness of natural shorelines shall be specified in the review report on the use of sea areas.
No approval shall be granted for the use of sea by construction projects that fail to realize the management and control objectives of the retention rate of natural coastlines.

Article 15 For the construction projects that occupy the artificial shorelines, sea use control standards for construction projects shall, under the principle of intensive and economic use, be strictly implemented and the utilization efficiency of artificial shorelines shall be improved.

Article 16 For the construction projects that occupy coastlines, priority shall be given to artificial islands, multi-jetty, block groups and other layout methods so as to increase the length of shorelines and reduce the impact on the hydrodynamic conditions and the erosion and deposition environment. Ecological construction shall be conducted for newly formed shorelines and vegetation landscape shall be created to promote the natural and ecological use of coastlines.

Article 17 Coastal local people's governments shall conduct rational layout of the production, living, and ecological shorelines. Shorelines, other than the production shorelines, specially utilized shorelines and shoreline areas as otherwise prescribed by the relevant laws and regulations, shall be disclosed to the public by appropriate methods.
Shorelines in marine recreation areas, coastal scenic spots, beach bathing places, marine parks and other public areas shall be published by the coastal local people's governments to the public, and the public welfare purposes shall not be changed without approval.

Chapter IV Rectification and Repair of Shorelines

Article 18 The State Oceanic Administration shall be responsible for developing the five-year plans and annual plans for the rectification and repair of coastlines across the country and establish a database for the coastlines rectification and repair projects across the country; and the competent administrative departments of marine affairs at the provincial level shall be responsible for developing five-year plans and annual plans of their respective administrative regions, propose a list of projects, and incorporate them to the database for the coastlines rectification and repair projects across the country.

Article 19 The State Oceanic Administration shall develop the technical standards for the rectification and repair of coastlines, and give priority to the repair and maintenance of beach, cleaning of nearshore structures, dredging & realignment, planting and restoration of coastal wetland vegetation, construction of coastal ecological corridors and other projects for the coastlines rectification and repair projects.

Article 20 The special funds of the central finance for the protection of oceanic islands and sea areas shall support the rectification and repair of coastlines.
The coastal local people's governments at all levels shall improve the mechanism of investment in the rectification and repair of coastlines, conduct rectification and repair of coastlines, and actively attract the investment of private investors.

Chapter V Supervision and Administration

Article 21 The State Oceanic Administration shall organize and carry out the dynamic surveillance and monitoring of coastlines and obtain the dynamic information on the protection and utilization of coastlines across the country in a timely manner.
The competent administrative departments of marine affairs at the provincial level shall organize and carry out on-site inspection of the protection and utilization of coastlines on a regular basis and verify and report the information on the illegal occupation of the coastlines in a timely manner.

Article 22 The State Oceanic Administration shall organize special enforcement examinations of the protection and utilization of coastlines on a regular basis, severely investigate and punish the illegal sea use behaviors occupying coastlines, and supervise the handling of important cases such as the occupation and destruction of natural coastlines by illegal use of the sea.

Article 23 The State Oceanic Administration shall organize and conduct the supervision of the protection and utilization of coastlines by the coastal local people's governments at all levels, urge the local authorities that fail to effectively fulfill the supervision and administration functions of the protection and utilization of coastlines to make rectifications within a prescribed time limit, and hold warning interviews with the authorities that fail to effectively implement rectification.

Article 24 The protection of natural coastlines shall be incorporated into the government performance examination of coastal local governments, and where approval is granted to a sea use project that occupies natural coastlines as in violation of the provisions and the management and control objectives of the retention rate of natural coastlines are not realized, a notice of criticism shall be circulated, rectification shall be made within a prescribed time limit, and relevant responsible persons shall be held accountable according to the laws and regulations.

Article 25 In areas where the retention rate of natural coastlines is not good enough, restricted approval of projects shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of the law, and the acceptance and approval of additional sea use projects that occupy natural coastlines in these areas shall be suspended.

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Article 26 These Measures shall come into force on the date of issuance.
Annex: Management and Control Objectives of the Retention Rate of the Natural Coastlines in the Coastal Provinces, Autonomous Regions and Municipalities Directly under the Central Government (2020)