Interim Meeting on“Study on National Resource Asset Appraisal and Management System for the NKEFZ"

In order to support the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People Republic of China in developing an action plan for the assessment, recording, monitoring and management of natural resources assets in Key Ecological Function Zones, Asian Development Bank (ADB) hired Naree International Limited (NAREE) to organize consultants to carry out the project.

On June 4^th, 2018, the Interim meeting of ADB Technical Assistance Project "Study on Natural-Resource Assets Assessment and Management Systemof National Key Ecological Function Zone", which was undertaken by NAREE, was successfully held in Beijing. Mr. Alvin Lopez (the Senior Natural Resourcesand Environment Specialist of ADB), WANG Xin (the Director of Bilateral and Multilateral Exchange and Cooperation of the Center for External Cooperation in Environmental Protection), QIU Qiong (the Director of the National Bureau of Statistics ofthe People's Republic of China) and CHEN Mo (the investigator of Policy and Regulation Department, Ministry of Ecological Environment) attended the meeting. Specialists from the Ministry of Ecological Environment, Remote Sensing Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Forestry University, Shaanxi Provincial Environmental Protection Department, Yang County Environmental Protection Bureau and NAREE attended the meeting and provided valued recommendations on the interim results of the project.

DONG Zhanfeng, the team leader of the technical assistance (TA) team, deputy director of the Policy Department of the Environmental Planning Institute ofthe Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and professor ZHANG Lixiao, the vice president of the Beijing Normal University, reported the achievements during the interim phase of the project. During this phase, the team reviewed the implementation and the latest progress of China's natural resource asset management policy, and summarized the international experience of Ecosystem Assets. The team developed a set of natural resource assets accounting framework and management system which can reflect the characteristics of keyecological function zones in China. The team conducted site visits in Shaanxi Province, Yangxian County, Hanzhong city, and related typical pilot areas. The team applied the accounting framework and management system developed to the ecological function area of Qinba Biodiversity, and explored the feasibility and applicability of the methodology. At the same time, the team also clarified the conditions, problems and challenges of the methodology applied to the Yang county pilot area.

The ADB’s representative praised the achievements in protecting the ecological environment, agreed the interim achievements of the team and expressed his expectation for the final results of the project. WANG Xin acknowledged the interim research results of the project, and said that the phased output laid the foundation for the success of the project. The assessment specialists of the project put forward reference opinions and suggestions on the specific accounting methods, management systems and policy recommendations in the report.