Original title: Dongguan Guanyin Mountain National Forest Park ecological and environmental problems are thought-provoking.
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Recently, the Journal of Environmental Engineering and Technology, a professional journal under the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, published a research article entitled "Coupling and Coordination Analysis of Urbanization and Landscape Ecological Security in the Pearl River Delta Region in the Past 20 Years", pointing out that it is difficult for urbanization and ecological environmental protection to develop simultaneously in the Pearl River Delta region of China, among which Dongguan City is listed as one of the cities on the verge of imbalance. The research results have aroused the attention of the society to the ecological environment of Dongguan Guanyin Mountain National Forest Park. It is worth noting that Dongguan City, as one of China's economically developed cities, has been named as one of the cities on the verge of imbalance in the "Urbanization and Landscape Ecological Security in the Pearl River Delta Region", and one of the cities with "lagging ecological environment" in the "New Urbanization" category. In other words, the construction and expansion of Dongguan's ecological environment is inconsistent with its economic development level, and its performance is unsatisfactory.
For more than 20 years, Huang Ganbo, the founder of the forest park, has led the park team to build Guanyin Mountain, a little-known ten-mile barren mountain, into a national 4A-level tourist scenic spot integrating forest oxygen bar, cultural experience, and marriage wishes, and the forest stock has nearly doubled, becoming a well-known Internet celebrity check-in and tourist destination in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and has paid more than 50 million yuan in taxes to the local government. From 2015 to 2017, the park received more than 1 million visitors, and from 2018 to 2019 it reached 1.25 million, and in 2023 the number of visitors has basically recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
In stark contrast to the achievements and honors achieved, for more than 20 years, Huang Ganbo has also been single-handedly seeking help from all parties through various channels for a long time, and constantly reporting the situation to the relevant functional departments, including the revision of the "Plan" of Guanyinshan Park, the lack of municipal power supply in a large area, and the repeated destruction of the ecological environment. The problem of environmental destruction is characterized by multi-faceted, multi-angle, multi-group, multi-sectoral, systematic and sustainable.
According to the Guanyin Mountain Forest Park, the problem of environmental damage has been around for a long time, and it can be said that it has been accompanied by the process of building the park. Since 2003 at the latest, there have been villagers on the mountain to build graves, deforestation and planting fruit trees, etc., in 2005 was rated as a national forest park, the commercial value of the park has also risen, deforestation, new villas, construction of factories, opening shops and other situations in the park are more frequent and rampant, there have been 4 business projects, a number of temporary shops, residences and other more than 60 illegal buildings.
What is particularly eye-catching is that there are more than 20 large and small cemeteries scattered throughout the park, ranging in size from 50 square meters to 300 square meters, among them.
There are seven or eight newly built tombs, and two luxurious tombs of about 300 square meters. In this regard, the competent department of Dongguan Civil Affairs Bureau admitted: The luxury tomb in the Guanyin Mountain Scenic Area has not gone through any formalities, which is an illegal construction, but it is a pity that it has not been punished and cleared until today.
In addition, there are 22 villas in the park, some of which are under construction, some are completed and vacant, and most of them have no legal procedures. These buildings are strange and have seriously affected the natural ecology of the park.
What makes Huang Ganbo's team and the majority of tourists like a fish in the throat are the high-voltage power transmission line through the park, the West-East Gas Transmission Road and the Congguan Expressway.
In 2008, the construction of PetroChina's West-East Gas Transmission Line began. When it came to the construction of the Dongguan section, it was delayed for a year because of the problem of not being able to pass Guanyin Mountain, because the project planning and construction plan approved by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China did not allow it to pass through the national forest park. Later, it was forced by Dongguan City to be buried on the surface and pass through the core area of Guanyin Mountain, with a length of 3 kilometers.
On November 6, 2008, Guanyinshan Park received a letter from the expressway company stating that the expressway from Dongguan would pass through the forest park in the form of a 3-kilometer tunnel and that the tunnel would be excavated by blasting.
From the Qingxi branch line of Dongguan Expressway, it is laid in parallel with the high-voltage transmission line and the west-to-east gas transmission line. Because the project cannot pass through the national forest park, Guanyin Mountain was specially bypassed in the design. However, when the Dongguan section was under construction, it was forced to be diverted to pass next to the statue of Guanyin on the top of Guanyin Mountain.
On December 26, 2018, the article "Rule of Law Weekend", "High-voltage Power Grid Group in National Forest Park", pointed out that in Guanyin Mountain, which is less than 500 meters above sea level, high-voltage towers and spider-web-like high-voltage power lines form an eye-catching "scenic line" of Guanyin Mountain National Forest Park Road.
After the first information disclosure, it was found that these projects violated relevant laws and regulations on environmental protection and forestry at the beginning of construction. But how can it be smooth from planning to project approval, from approval to construction to operation?
The environmental destruction of Guanyin Mountain Park continues. Judging from the content, there is a problem of cutting down forests, digging mountains in the open and dark, and multi-way high-voltage line towers passing through, "the mountains are dug up with thousands of holes, some open farmhouses, build shops, some engage in factories, build villas, and some build luxury graves, and the preliminary estimate is that about 2,000 acres of ecological forests have been destroyed." From the perspective of related entities, there are power transmission projects, west-to-east gas transmission projects, Dongguancong high-speed projects, Hong Kong businessmen, local villagers, industrial and commercial owners, etc.; From the perspective of administrative departments, there are Shicun Community, Zhangmutou Town, Dongguan Forestry Bureau, Environmental Protection Bureau, Natural Resources Bureau and the city.
In 2010, the Agricultural Office of Zhangmutou Town determined that 660 acres of forest in Guanyinshan Park were destroyed.
In 2023, the Dongguan Forestry Bureau said that after comparing the satellites of the park and the surrounding area over the years, it was not found that as many as 1,000 acres of original secondary forest in the park had been artificially destroyed.
In 2014, Guanyinshan Park specially invited the Cangzhou Forensic Center to conduct an appraisal and concluded that nearly 1,000 acres of deforestation had been planted with fruit trees. Later, in 2023, Dalian Hongtai Marine Resources Assets Assessment was invited to identify the deforestation of the park, and the result was: "The area of partially cut down trees within the park is 11227 acres". This figure does not include the area that has been restored after continued deforestation. If the two are added together, the area will be larger.
In response to the illegal construction in the park, the Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources responded on July 4, 2019 that it was a rural self-built house, of which 20 were built before 2005, and some of the self-built houses had land and forest use beyond the approved area, and they were being investigated and dealt with.
In 2020, after the deforestation incident of Guanyinshan Park was **, the relevant departments of Dongguan City organized law enforcement personnel to investigate and find out, and demolished and relocated a small part of the corners and corners of individual villas and cemeteries in the scenic area, but at the same time, the service facilities of the park were demolished in a large area.
For environmental damage and other illegal acts, the park management has no law enforcement power, and can only continue to complain and report to the relevant departments, but the results are not good. On Huang Ganbo's desk, there are all kinds of information disclosure replies, mostly from forestry, environmental protection and development and reform bureaus, of which more than 20 are aimed at high-voltage power grids. "Every complaint, report, police report, and report is recorded and archived, and now it is a thick stack of materials."
On January 15, 2023, Guanyinshan Park submitted a report to the Supreme People's Procuratorate on the "Reflection on the Huge Damage to the Ecological Environment of Guanyin Mountain National Forest Park in Guangdong", which the procuratorate attached great importance to and included it in the work arrangement of the court that year.
On June 29, 2023, the Dongguan Forestry Bureau replied to the Guanyin Mountain report: "After investigation, it was found that Wang Mouhui cut down trees without the approval and consent of the forestry authorities, causing forest destruction. After calculation, Wang Mouhui destroyed the forest and accumulated 34 cubic meters, at present, our bureau has filed a case against Wang Mouhui's destruction of trees, and will be punished administratively in accordance with the law", but the park has not received the final results.
For more than 20 years, there has been an almost one-sided tug-of-war and protracted war between the protection of greenery and the destruction of the environment.
At present, the "Journals of Environmental Engineering and Technology" of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has published an article "Coupling and Coordination Analysis of Urbanization and Landscape Ecological Security in the Pearl River Delta Region in the Past 20 Years". In light of the long-term application and legitimate appeal of the Guanyin Mountain National Forest Park for inclusion in the nature reserve, it is reasonable to rely on this policy to get a positive response from the competent authorities.
In order to make all departments have rules to follow, we might as well go back and analyze the "Dongguan Guanyin Mountain Forest Park Joint Development Contract" signed by Guanyinshan Park and Shixin Village: the contracting right of this contract naturally includes the usufructuary right including the contractor's management right.
Previously, some experts expressed their opinions on the usufruct rights of Guanyinshan Park, emphasizing that "usufruct rights are one of the manifestations of property rights - only under the premise that property rights are clear and observed, can the ecological protection work of the park be orderly." ”
In summary, the ecological and environmental problems of Guanyin Mountain National Forest Park need to be solved urgently. Only by protecting the ecological environment of Guanyin Mountain Park can we achieve sustainable local social and economic development and make Guanyin Mountain Forest Park a precious wealth given to us by nature. In addition, local governments should also actively perform their regulatory duties to ensure that relevant laws and regulations are effectively implemented to effectively protect the ecological environment of national forest parks.
Comprehensive: China.com, Tencent, Xinzhou.com, Nantong release, etc.