On September 22, the State Council Information Office held a series of press conferences under the theme "A Strong Start for the 15th Five-Year Plan," focusing on efforts to promote the safe, efficient, and sustainable use of natural resources. During the event, Liu Guohong, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Chief Inspector of Natural Resources, summarized the overall progress of natural resource protection and utilization this year using three key terms: "efficiency," "sustainability," and "security."
Regarding "efficiency," efforts have centered on the high-efficiency allocation of spatial and resource factors to support high-quality development. The ministry has adhered to the shared construction and use of the "One Map" for territorial spatial planning, reserving space for over 2,800 major project land demands and serving major initiatives such as the "Six Networks" infrastructure construction. The resource industries spanning minerals, oceans, forestry and grassland, and geographic information have flourished, with national mining rights transaction value growing by 133.5% year-on-year from January to August, and non-oil and gas mineral exploration investment rising by 8.1% in the first half of the year. Additionally, new orders for marine vessels and marine engineering equipment increased by 83.7% and 160.8% year-on-year, respectively, during the January-August period.
On "sustainability," the focus has been on systematic ecological protection and restoration to underpin the uninterrupted use of natural resources. The integration and optimization plans for natural protected areas are being progressively implemented, with flagship species populations in national parks continuing to recover and grow. Concurrently, a new batch of "Mountain-River Projects" has been fully launched, and the "Three-North" Shelterbelt Program campaign has advanced steadily, completing a cumulative 265 million mu of various construction tasks over three years, thus continuously improving ecosystem quality and stability.
On "security," the ministry has worked to safeguard bottom-line risks by enhancing resource security guarantees and natural disaster prevention capabilities. Active efforts have been made to promote the enactment of a law on farmland protection and quality improvement, while leveraging planning guidance to gradually optimize the layout of arable land and forest areas. The new round of mineral exploration has yielded impressive results: from January to August, newly added recoverable petroleum reserves reached nearly 70 million tonnes, and natural gas added 610 billion cubic meters of recoverable reserves. Discoveries in the Chating copper-gold mine in Anhui and the Zhugongtang lead-zinc mine in Guizhou have reached giant-scale resource additions. Furthermore, specialized monitoring, early warning systems, and group-based prevention measures have been reinforced to enhance disaster response capabilities.
At the same press conference, Zhou Xing, spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Vice Minister, noted that China, as a major manufacturing nation, will foreseeably continue to see rigid growth in demand for key mineral resources during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. To address this, the ministry will persist with the new round of strategic mineral exploration initiative, firmly securing the energy "rice bowl" and providing solid support for the nation's advanced manufacturing development.
Specifically, the ministry will focus on four primary fronts: first, prioritizing geological surveys to lay a solid groundwork for exploration; second, intensifying exploration and extraction efforts to boost reserve growth and production capacity; third, strengthening technological innovation to achieve new increments and revitalize existing resources; and fourth, refining policy frameworks to stimulate enthusiasm for mineral exploration.