II. Improving the System of Property Rights for Natural Resource Assets

5. Establishing a unified system for determining and registering ownership

The owners of natural resource assets of all types throughout all Chinese territorial space will be determined in accordance with the principles that all natural resources in China are publicly owned and all property rights are legally prescribed. Ownership of all natural ecological spaces including water flows, forests, mountains, grasslands, uncultivated land, and tidal flats will, according to a unified system, be determined and registered. Clear lines will be gradually delineated to distinguish between assets owned by the whole people and assets collectively owned,ownership by the whole people and ownership operated by different levels of government, and between different collective owners. The rule of law will be strengthened in the determination and registration of ownership.

6. Establishing a system of property rights for natural resources within which rights and responsibilities are explicit

A list of rights will be developed to specify the rights of ownership for all types of natural resource assets. The relationship between ownership rights and use rights will be properly dealt with. New forms of collective ownership and ownership by the whole people will be created. With the exception of natural resources which are ecologically important, the ownership rights and use rights for all other natural resources can be separated. It will be made clear who has the right to possess, use, benefit from, or dispose of natural resources, and corresponding rights and responsibilities will be clarified. The right to sell, transfer, and rent out use rights, as well as the right to use them as collateral, as the basis of a loan guaranty, or to gain an equity stake, will all be suitably expanded. The roles of owners and users of land on which state-owned farms, forests, and pastures are located will be clearly defined. A complete system for sale will be established covering all types of natural resource assets owned by the whole people, while the uncompensated transfer of rights or their sale at excessively low a price are to be strictly forbidden. We will draw up an integrated plan for strengthening efforts to develop a natural resource asset exchange.

7. Improving the state system of management for natural resource assets

In accordance with the principles of separating owners from regulators and assigning the responsibility for one matter to one single department, the currently diffuse duties and responsibilities of ownership of natural resource assets owned by the whole people will be integrated, and one body will be established to carry out the unified exercise of ownership rights for all types of natural resources owned by the whole people, such as mineral deposits, water flows, forests, mountains, grasslands, uncultivated land, marine areas, and tidal flats, and take responsibility for the sale of these natural resources.

8. Exploring the establishment of a system for exercising ownership rights at different levels

Research will be conducted to explore how a system can be put into practice in which, in accordance with the type of resource and its importance in relation to the ecological environment, the economy, and national defense, the central and local governments act as the agents of the owners of natural resource assets owned by the whole people, in order to achieve both efficiency and equity. Resources and territorial space for which the ownership rights are owned by the whole people and directly exercised by the Central Government will be distinguished from those for which the ownership rights are owned by the whole people and exercised by local governments. The Central Government will primarily exercise directly the ownership rights for petroleum and natural gas, valuable and rare mineral resources, key state-owned forests, major rivers and lakes, trans-boundary rivers, ecologically important wetlands and grasslands, marine areas, tidal flats, rare and endangered species of wild fauna and flora, and some national parks.

9. Launching trials for determining property rights for water flows and wetlands

Explorations will be made into establishing a water ownership system. Trials will be carried out in determining ownership of bodies of water, coast lines, and other aquatic ecospace. On the basis of respecting the systematic nature and integrity of water ecosystems, the ownership rights, use rights, and allowable volumes for water resource use will be delineated. Trials will be launched in Gansu, Ningxia, and other areas for determining the ownership of wetlands.