Miyun Reservoir watershed is one of the most important water protection areas in the world. It supplies between half and two thirds of Beijing’s domestic water supply. Miyun watershed has been chosen by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, MEP, and the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, CAEP, as the location for a pilot project on eco-compensation under the ACEDP project ‘Water Ecology Compensation’ being carried out by ANU Enterprise, ANUE. Following the failure of Guanting Reservoir due to water pollution in 1997, Beijing government required major changes in land use, closure of polluting industries and the cessation of polluting and water intensive developments in the Miyun Reservoir Watershed.
From 12 to 18 May 2010, a team from ANUE and CAEP carried out field investigations in the Miyun watershed, which incorporates the two main river systems the Chao He and Bai He which feed the Reservoir. The field work included discussions with County and City officials on the impact of the restrictions, collection of data and site inspections.
The team visited Fengning Manchu Autonomous County, Chengde City Prefecture, Hebei (37% of the watershed), Miyun County in Beijing Municipality, Chicheng County, Zhangjiakou Prefecture, Hebei Province (46% of the watershed) and Yanqing County, Beijing Municipality which lie north, and northwest of Beijing city.
Some of the changed land uses inspected included: conversion of paddy rice fields to corn fields; conversion of paddy rice fields to forests; conversion of cropping land to hay production; conversion of cropping land to forests; conversion of grazing lands to forests; conversion of commercial forestry to public good forests; closing down of free-range grazing of animals on hill slopes and mountains; relocation of large scale animal production out of the watershed; closing down of fish cage culture in the Reservoir; closing down polluting mines and smelters; closing down polluting industries; prevention of sewage and wastewater discharge to streams; recycling of wastewater and sludge; and relocation of households from sensitive regions. The massive efforts that have been made in replanting mountains and steep hill slopes to forests in both the Chao He and Bai He catchments was immediately obvious to the team.
These changes have been designed to increase the downstream yield of water and protect and improve water quality in the Reservoir. For example, it is estimated that the conversion of paddy fields to dry land corn alone saves 7,500 m3/ha and the total water saving throughout the watershed is greater than 30 million m3. In addition, water quality appears to be improving with fish counts in the Chao He doubling since reforestation commenced. All these changes have been at considerable cost to local governments, communities and individual farmers. While they are being compensated for these sacrifices on a somewhat ad hoc basis, there is a general feeling that the compensation is inadequate and needs to be put on a more scientific and equitable basis.
Some of the valuable ideas that emerged from the field visit were: the appointment of an independent arbitrator, possible an independent prices regulator, to assess and recommend the level of compensation paid from downstream to upstream governments; assignment of water entitlements to upstream counties which entitle them to a proportional share of the water generated in the county which could be traded downstream at a price set by the independent arbiter or price regulator; downstream and upstream governments in a city-water supply watershed, such as Miyun Reservoir, could be formed into an integrated water supply cooperation zone. In this zone a multi-dimensional, cooperative framework could be developed which integrates the environmental needs of the downstream communities and the development requirements of the upstream communities together; and the politically complex suggestion that water pricing in Beijing should include the cost of eco-compensation paid to upstream communities who have had to forego development opportunities and adopt less profitable land uses in order to protect and secure Beijing’s water supply.