Chapter 9
Chinese Law and Policy on Marine
Environmental Protection
Jiayi Wang
9.1 Introduction
As the ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, and constitutes more than 90% of
the Earth’s biosphere,
1 the health of ocean ecosystems is of great importance for
the Earth’s life support system. However, the world oceans continue to deteriorate
due to the combined effects of climate change and human activities, such as vessel
and land-based pollution, exploitation of mineral resources, overfishing and habitat
1 Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2012), Marine Biodiversity: One Ocean,
Many Worlds of Life, Montreal: 5, available at https://www.cbd.int/idb/doc/2012/booklet/idb-2012booklet-en.pdf.
2 World Wildlife Fund’s report shows that marine populations have declined by 49% between 1970
and 2012, see World Wildlife Fund Report (2015), Living Blue Planet Report: Species, habitats and
human well-being,Switzerland: 7, available at https://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/
817/files/original/Living_Blue_Planet_Report_2015_Final_LR.pdf?1442242821, last accessed 3
January 2020.
3 Florida Atlantic University, ‘Thirty years of unique data reveal what’s really killing coral reefs’,
15 July 2020,available at https://phys.org/news/2019-07-years-unique-reveal-coral-reefs.html, last
accessed 3 January 2020.
4 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of World Fisheries and
Aquaculture 2018—Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, FAO, Rome, Italy, 2018, pp. 6–7.
5 See Jenna R. Jambeck, et al. Plastic Waste Inputs from Land into the Ocean, Science, 347 (6223),
2015, pp. 768–771.
6 James Harrison, Saving the Ocean Through Law: The International Legal Framework for the
Protection of Marine Environment, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, p. 19.
This chapter is part of a research project funded by China’s National Social Sciences Foundation
(18VHQ002).
J. Wang (B)
Huzhou University, Huzhou, China
e-mail: jiayi1108@163.com
© Kobe University 2021
D. Tamada and K. Zou (eds.), Implementation of the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea, Kobe University Monograph Series in Social Science Research,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6954-2_9
151
Chinese Law and Policy on Marine
Environmental Protection
Jiayi Wang
9.1 Introduction
As the ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, and constitutes more than 90% of
the Earth’s biosphere,
1 the health of ocean ecosystems is of great importance for
the Earth’s life support system. However, the world oceans continue to deteriorate
due to the combined effects of climate change and human activities, such as vessel
and land-based pollution, exploitation of mineral resources, overfishing and habitat
1 Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2012), Marine Biodiversity: One Ocean,
Many Worlds of Life, Montreal: 5, available at https://www.cbd.int/idb/doc/2012/booklet/idb-2012booklet-en.pdf.
2 World Wildlife Fund’s report shows that marine populations have declined by 49% between 1970
and 2012, see World Wildlife Fund Report (2015), Living Blue Planet Report: Species, habitats and
human well-being,Switzerland: 7, available at https://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/
817/files/original/Living_Blue_Planet_Report_2015_Final_LR.pdf?1442242821, last accessed 3
January 2020.
3 Florida Atlantic University, ‘Thirty years of unique data reveal what’s really killing coral reefs’,
15 July 2020,available at https://phys.org/news/2019-07-years-unique-reveal-coral-reefs.html, last
accessed 3 January 2020.
4 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of World Fisheries and
Aquaculture 2018—Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, FAO, Rome, Italy, 2018, pp. 6–7.
5 See Jenna R. Jambeck, et al. Plastic Waste Inputs from Land into the Ocean, Science, 347 (6223),
2015, pp. 768–771.
6 James Harrison, Saving the Ocean Through Law: The International Legal Framework for the
Protection of Marine Environment, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, p. 19.
This chapter is part of a research project funded by China’s National Social Sciences Foundation
(18VHQ002).
J. Wang (B)
Huzhou University, Huzhou, China
e-mail: jiayi1108@163.com
© Kobe University 2021
D. Tamada and K. Zou (eds.), Implementation of the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea, Kobe University Monograph Series in Social Science Research,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6954-2_9
151