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　　In accordance with the requirements of the "Plan for Deepening Reform of Party and State Institutions," the Ministry of Natural Resources has been officially established. This undoubtedly represents a major transformation in China's natural resource management system. We must adopt a strategic perspective that takes into account both history and the broader picture, grasp the new tasks and requirements of natural resource work in the new era, and live up to the trust placed in us and fulfill our mission with integrity. Therefore, it is indeed worth exploring exactly what functions the Ministry of Natural Resources is tasked with, as well as the practical foundations, theoretical underpinnings, and legal rationale behind these functions.

　　Meaning of natural resources

　　Regarding the definition of natural resources, the "Cihai," the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the United Nations Environment Programme all offer definitions in various forms. In his book "Principles of Natural Resource Science," scholar Cai Yunlong defines natural resources as "any naturally occurring substance or phenomenon that humans can obtain from nature to satisfy their needs and desires, as well as the outcomes of human activities that have acted upon such substances. Alternatively, natural resources may be viewed as the initial inputs into human social life that originate from the natural world." The author believes that this understanding is more comprehensive and accurate, and it is also consistent with the fundamental tenets of Marxism. According to Marx's concept of "humanized nature," the natural objects referred to as natural resources inherently contain elements shaped by human activity. Based on geographical characteristics, natural resources are typically categorized into five major types: mineral resources (the Earth's crust), water resources (the hydrosphere), land resources (the Earth's surface), biological resources (the biosphere), and climate resources (the atmosphere). In academic circles, these resources are often further divided into renewable resources and non-renewable resources. By recognizing that natural resources encompass both natural substances and the products of human labor, we can clearly see that natural resource management entails not only the tasks of protection and utilization but also responsibilities such as nurturing, renewal, and restoration. Similarly, acknowledging the relativity between renewable and non-renewable resources enables us to more consciously protect and use natural resources in a rational manner, thereby promoting differentiated management approaches.

　　The relationship among resources, the environment, ecology, and land use.

　　Natural resources, the natural environment, and ecological systems represent functional distinctions of nature from the perspective of human well-being. Among these, resources embody nature's substantive functions, reflecting its direct utility to humanity; the environment embodies nature's capacity to absorb and provide services, establishing a relationship between nature and humans in which nature serves as the object and humans as the subject; and ecology reflects the reciprocal relationships and co-evolutionary dynamics between the subject—living organisms, including humans—and the object—the natural environment—thus capturing nature's state of existence. Resources, the environment, and ecology each highlight different functions of nature toward humanity, yet they are all unified within nature as a whole, interdependent and mutually influential. Compared to the natural environment, natural resources share certain common characteristics—such as wholeness, regionality, and publicness—while also exhibiting unique features, such as scarcity, asset value, and multipurpose utility. The concepts of natural resources and land resources are quite similar in meaning; however, if we were to draw a fine distinction, land resources encompass not only natural resources but also infrastructure elements attached to the national territory (such as roads, water conservancy projects, ports, airports, etc.) and cultural and historical sites. Land resources play a more significant role as carriers, whereas natural resources themselves possess stronger elemental functions. From the analysis above, it is clear that resources, the environment, and ecology constitute distinct categories within the construction of an ecological civilization. Natural resource management plays a crucial role in ecological civilization building as well as in economic, political, cultural, and social development.

　　Functions of the Natural Resources Department

　　Natural resources are the foundation of development, the source of ecological health, and the cornerstone of people’s livelihoods. The natural resources sector shoulders three major functions: ensuring development, safeguarding ecological protection, and providing services for people’s well-being. The reform plan emphasizes that “building an ecological civilization is a millennium-long strategy for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. We must firmly establish and practice the philosophy that ‘lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,’ and adopt a holistic approach to managing the integrated system of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands.” This reflects three key concepts: First, the concept of ecological civilization. Natural resources play a pivotal and central role in ecological protection and construction; strengthening natural resource management is an essential component of building an ecological civilization. Second, the concept of dialectical unity. Natural resource management must consistently support economic development without exceeding the carrying capacity of resources and the environment, thereby achieving a win-win situation for both development and conservation. Third, the concept of systemic synergy. Ecosystems represent the unity of diversity and integrity; it is critically important that the natural resources sector assume full responsibility for land-use regulation across all territorial spaces, enabling unified protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands. Based on the above analysis, ecological protection occupies a prominent position among the three core functions of the natural resources sector and will become its primary function and greatest responsibility in the future.

　　Thoroughly implement the fundamental strategy of promoting harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.

　　The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that “building an ecological civilization is a millennium-long plan for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. We must firmly establish and practice the philosophy that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, adhere to the basic state policy of conserving resources and protecting the environment, treat the ecological environment with the same care we give to life itself, comprehensively manage the integrated system of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands, implement the strictest possible environmental protection system, foster green modes of development and lifestyles, and unswervingly follow the path of civilized development characterized by productive growth, prosperous lives, and a sound ecological environment. Together, we must build a beautiful China, create a favorable environment for people’s production and living, and contribute to global ecological security.” This represents the overarching goal and guiding principle for natural resource work in the new era—a fundamental guideline and action blueprint for all future endeavors. To effectively implement this fundamental strategy, the author believes it is essential to adhere to the following principles:

　　We must uphold the principles of respecting nature, adapting to nature, and protecting nature. Nature is the mother from which humanity has emerged, the prerequisite for our self-improvement, and the foundation for our self-development. We should abandon the notion of treating nature as our master, dominator, or controller, and instead embrace the idea that humans and nature are a community with a shared future.

　　Adhere to the principles of prioritizing conservation, giving top priority to protection, and relying primarily on natural restoration. In resource development and conservation, place conservation first and strive to reduce resource consumption in economic and social development. In ecological protection and development, prioritize protection—developing through protection and protecting through development. In ecological construction and restoration, rely mainly on natural restoration, while also integrating it with artificial restoration efforts.

　　Uphold green development, circular development, and low-carbon development. Foster the mindset that clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, that protecting the ecological environment is to protect productivity, and that improving the ecological environment is to boost productivity. Promote the formation of spatial patterns, industrial structures, production methods, and lifestyles that conserve resources, protect the environment, and enhance ecosystems, thereby achieving an intrinsic unity and mutual promotion between development and protection.

　　Adhere to integrated development, comprehensive protection across the entire territory, and holistic remediation. Based on the carrying capacity of resources and the environment, coordinate land development, protection, and remediation efforts to achieve a harmonious balance between concentrated development and balanced growth, promote synergistic advancement between localized development and comprehensive protection, and integrate resource conservation as a priority with efficient utilization. This will fundamentally reverse the trend of environmental degradation and create a favorable living and working environment for the people.

　　Uphold strict prevention at the source, rigorous management throughout the process, and severe punishment for any harm caused. Foster the concepts of recognizing nature’s intrinsic value, paying for its use, and compensating for any damage inflicted. Strengthen awareness of property rights protection, land-use regulation, and accountability. Improve the incentive-and-restraint-based interest-oriented mechanism, and promote the rule of law and institutionalization of resource oversight.

　　Adhere to government leadership, enterprise as the main body, and public participation. Improve market mechanisms, enhance the government’s regulatory role, harness enterprises’ initiative and self-discipline, and leverage the supervisory role of social organizations and the public.

　　Adhere to comprehensive planning, systematic design, and coordinated promotion. Strengthen the concept that “mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes, and grasslands” constitute a community of life. In accordance with the principles of ecosystem diversity, integrity, and inherent laws, carry out holistic protection, systematic restoration, and integrated management of all elements of terrestrial and marine ecosystems—upstream, midstream, and downstream; on, above, and below mountains; above and below ground—as well as natural ecological components. This will enhance the ecosystem’s capacity for self-regulation, self-repair, and self-balancing, thereby safeguarding ecological balance and sustained productivity.

　　From a global perspective, natural resources and their management face three major challenges: intensifying resource scarcity, inequitable distribution of benefits, and unsustainable utilization. In the course of building ecological civilizations, Western countries have also accumulated extensive experience. From the perspective of natural resource institutional development, we can summarize the following key points: land-use regulation is the prerequisite; property rights protection is the foundation; interest coordination is the critical factor; resource conservation is the fundamental principle; integrated management is the emerging trend; and legal system development provides the necessary guarantee.

　　Establish a new positioning for natural resource work that keeps pace with the times.

　　In light of the changing principal social contradictions in China, the need to promote high-quality development, and the requirements for advancing ecological civilization, we propose that the mission of natural resource management in the new era should be: building a beautiful country, fostering comprehensive development, and enhancing the benefits of resources for the people.

　　Building a beautiful country means fully implementing the concept of green development, playing a leading role in ecological civilization construction, and making greater contributions to the journey of building a beautiful China. We must intensify efforts to protect ecosystems at their source. Scientifically formulate land-use plans, coordinate production, living, and ecological spaces, and establish a networked system for protecting ecosystems at their source. We must firmly advance comprehensive resource conservation and circular utilization. Implement the strictest land-saving policies, innovate new approaches and models for resource conservation and utilization, and comprehensively enforce total control and reduction management of construction land. We must comprehensively strengthen integrated land improvement. Integrate land improvement with national strategies such as rural revitalization, regional coordinated development, and poverty alleviation, explore new models for driving urban-rural integration and regional transformation through “land improvement plus,” and maximize the impact of these improvement initiatives.

　　Promoting all-round development means responding to the people’s growing aspirations for a better life, better leveraging the foundational role of natural resources, and fostering the all-round development of individuals and the comprehensive progress of society. Structural reforms on the supply side must achieve even greater results. We need to optimize the allocation of existing resources, expand the supply of high-quality incremental resources, and advance the “three reductions, one lowering, and one supplementation” initiative, thereby driving industrial transformation and upgrading as well as the emergence of new growth drivers and new sources of momentum. We must assume greater responsibility in implementing the rural revitalization strategy. Actively participate in the formulation of rural strategic plans, strengthen land-use guarantees for rural revitalization, and effectively manage inter-provincial balance between land occupation and replenishment as well as the adjustment of indicators linking increases and decreases in land use. To promote the implementation of the regional coordinated development strategy, we must adopt more concrete measures. We should optimize the spatial layout of land use, support the economic transformation and development of resource-based regions, and improve and implement mechanisms that link population with land use.

　　Enhancing resource benefits for the people means faithfully implementing the development philosophy centered on the people, leveraging the institutional and political advantages of China’s public ownership of resources, and ensuring that the development and utilization of resources better benefit the broad masses. We must conscientiously and responsibly refine the fundamental land system to promote the healthy development of the real estate sector. We should accelerate the establishment of a residential land supply system that aligns with a housing system featuring multiple suppliers, diversified channels of保障, and a combination of rental and purchase options, while increasing the proportion of land allocated for rental housing and co-ownership housing. We must spare no effort in providing resource support for poverty alleviation efforts. Focusing particularly on poverty alleviation in deeply impoverished areas, we should make good use of existing support policies, actively explore innovative approaches to poverty reduction, and speed up the realization of new effectiveness from resource-based poverty alleviation policies. We must persistently carry out the work of unified real estate registration. We should enhance both the quality and efficiency of registration, accelerate the application of information platforms, and introduce more measures that are convenient and beneficial to the public.

　　Strict supervision of the development, utilization, and protection of natural resources

　　The development, utilization, and protection of natural resources run through the entire process—“source, process, and consequences”—of ecological civilization construction. Upholding the strictest resource protection system, implementing the most rigorous resource conservation measures, and establishing the most stringent ecological protection and restoration mechanisms are of fundamental and overarching significance for advancing the institutional development of ecological civilization, and represent the central task of natural resource management.

　　Establishing a centralized and unified management system for natural resources is an urgent priority. Centralized and unified management of natural resources aligns with their inherent characteristics—scarcity, integrity, public good nature, and multifunctionality—and is in line with the global trend toward integrated natural resource management. It also helps to effectively implement the requirements of the ecological civilization reform. The reform plan integrates the responsibilities of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the State Oceanic Administration, and the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping, and Geoinformation, along with the planning, management, resource surveys, and property rights registration duties of relevant departments, to establish the Ministry of Natural Resources. This creates favorable conditions for building a centralized and unified management system for natural resources. The newly established agency will bring together the management of major natural resources—including land, minerals, marine areas, water, forests, and grasslands—and achieve “five unifications” in its functions: unified survey and assessment, unified property rights registration, unified use control, unified monitoring and supervision, and unified remediation and restoration.

　　Accelerate the improvement of systems for natural resource conservation and efficiency. Resource conservation and efficiency are the primary strategies for protecting the ecological environment. In response to prominent issues such as prioritizing development over protection, emphasizing quantity over quality, and still adopting extensive resource utilization practices, we must refine and implement the strictest possible systems for resource conservation and efficiency. This includes fully enforcing the system for farmland protection and balancing land occupation with replenishment, improving systems for the protection and compensation for the use of grasslands, forests, and wetlands, establishing a management framework governed by the “three lines”—ecological protection redlines, permanent basic farmland, and urban development boundaries—innovating mechanisms for water, land, and mineral conservation, and perfecting the system for constructing and reclaiming coastal areas.

　　Focus on establishing a system for land remediation and ecological restoration. The reform plan has incorporated the principles of “integrated governance of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasslands” and “unified exercise of responsibilities for controlling land use and for ecological protection and restoration” into the requirements for setting up the Ministry of Natural Resources. Therefore, ecological restoration and systematic governance are undoubtedly fundamental functions of the natural resources sector, while land remediation serves as an important platform for ecological restoration and is inherently integral to systematic governance. We must adhere to the principle of systematic governance, integrating efforts to address land, mining, water, marine, mountain, grassland, and forest issues, and comprehensively promote the integrated restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasslands, thereby effectively enhancing the resource and environmental carrying capacity.

　　Establish a spatial planning system and oversee its implementation.

　　Ecological and environmental problems, at their root, stem from the overexploitation, extensive use, and extravagant waste of natural resources. To fundamentally address this issue, we must strengthen the regulation of natural resources—especially by implementing comprehensive land-use controls across the entire national territory. On the basis of unified, coordinated, and authoritative land-use planning, we need to establish a spatial planning system, promote the integration of multiple plans into one, and rigorously oversee the implementation of these plans. This represents the greatest breakthrough in this round of reform of the natural resource management system and will also become a key responsibility of the natural resource authorities in the future.

　　The reform plan has clarified two key relationships: The first is the relationship between land-use control and spatial planning. From a legal perspective, spatial planning serves both as the fundamental basis for land-use control and as an important tool for implementing it—these two are inseparable. From a theoretical standpoint, starting in the 1980s and 1990s, scholars such as Friedman successively proposed a “action-oriented” view of planning, replacing the traditional “policy-centered” planning model and focusing on addressing the disconnect between planning formulation and implementation. From the perspective of international practice, spatial planning activities—including resource surveys, plan preparation, plan implementation, and enforcement oversight—are a continuous, sequentially linked process characterized by ongoing information feedback and cannot be separated. The reform plan assigns both land-use control and spatial planning responsibilities to the natural resources authority, thereby integrating plan preparation, implementation, and oversight into a unified whole and laying a solid foundation for effectively enforcing land-use control.

　　The second aspect concerns the relationships among various types of spatial planning. Currently, among China’s major spatial plans—such as the Overall Plan for Land Use, Urban and Rural Planning, and the Functional Zone Planning—the Functional Zone Planning occupies a strategic position. However, its legal and institutional foundation remains weak, and both its theoretical underpinnings and practical implementation are still insufficiently mature. This reform plan integrates these major categories of planning under the purview of the natural resources authorities, thereby creating crucial conditions for establishing a unified, coordinated, and authoritative spatial planning system, advancing the integration of multiple plans into one, leveraging the strengths of each plan while mitigating their respective weaknesses. In the future, it would be advisable to build a spatial planning system based on the Functional Zone Strategy, with land-use planning serving as the core component. This system should feature top-down, hierarchical control, mutual reinforcement between overall and specialized plans, and seamless integration of grassroots land-use planning with urban and rural planning.

　　Effectively fulfill the responsibilities of the owner of all types of natural resource assets owned by the entire population.

　　The reform plan places great emphasis on addressing the issue of inadequate ownership of natural resources by assigning the Ministry of Natural Resources the responsibility of “performing the duties of owner of all types of natural resource assets owned by the entire people.” This is one of the key highlights of this round of reform. Overall, the reform plan adheres to the principles of “separating ownership from regulation” and “assigning responsibility for each task to a single agency.” On the one hand, it consolidates the previously fragmented responsibilities of owners of natural resource assets owned by the entire people, establishing a unified body to exercise ownership rights. On the other hand, it sets up the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, which will be managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and will primarily be responsible for overseeing and managing the development, utilization, and protection of forest, grassland, wetland, desert, and terrestrial wildlife resources, as well as administering various nature reserves including national parks. This arrangement not only helps address the problem of inadequate ownership of natural resources but also strikes a good balance between unified management and specialized management.

　　One of the objectives of improving the regulatory system for natural resource assets is to clearly delineate the rights of natural resource asset owners from the powers of natural resource managers, thereby addressing the problem of a single entity simultaneously serving as both “athlete” and “referee.” However, natural resources and natural resource assets are, after all, different attributes of the same natural space; spatial use controls not only affect but also determine the value of natural resource assets. From the perspective of reducing management costs and enhancing administrative efficiency, it is essential that natural resource regulation and natural resource asset management be unified in terms of survey and assessment, as well as coordinated in regulatory policies. The reform plan fully takes this practical reality into account. Rather than completely separating natural resource asset management from natural resource regulation, it establishes management agencies for protected areas such as national parks, which would be under the administration of the Ministry of Natural Resources. In the future, there is even the prospect of setting up within the Ministry of Natural Resources a dedicated agency responsible for overseeing natural resource assets owned by the entire people. By establishing an internal division of labor and responsibility mechanism, this approach will enable mutual supervision and mutual promotion among different entities.

　　Establishing a regulatory body for natural resource assets owned by the entire people represents a completely new exploration. This body will exercise, on behalf of the state, the ownership rights uniformly over natural resource assets that belong to the entire people, thereby ensuring the effective realization of ownership rights over these assets and guaranteeing their preservation and appreciation in value. It is necessary to empower this body with responsibilities including the transfer, leasing, equity participation, and mortgage of natural resource assets owned by the entire people. At the same time, it is important to strike a proper balance between directly exercising ownership rights and entrusting departments or local authorities to act as agents in exercising such rights, as well as between managing natural resource assets owned by the entire people and safeguarding the rights and interests of collectively owned natural resource assets.

　　Accelerate the unified survey and registration of property rights for natural resources.

　　The reform plan consolidates the responsibilities for surveying, confirming rights, and registering resources—including land, minerals, marine areas, water, wetlands, forests, and grasslands—under the Ministry of Natural Resources. This move lays a solid foundation for addressing longstanding challenges in resource management, such as multiple government agencies issuing conflicting directives, inconsistent standards, redundant surveys, and unclear property rights. It represents an important milestone toward centralized and unified management of natural resources.

　　Unified survey and assessment constitute an essential foundational task for natural resource regulation. Unified standards are the prerequisite. We must systematically develop standardized protocols for various types of natural resource surveys, harmonizing resource classification, coordinate systems, spatial data, and surveying and mapping specifications to create a single, integrated “map and dataset” of natural resources, thereby gaining a comprehensive and accurate understanding of China’s natural resource inventory. Unified indicators are the core. We need to systematically define the tasks for nationwide basic surveys and specialized surveys, standardizing requirements related to the quantity, quality, ecological conditions, distribution, ownership, and utilization status of resources. A unified platform provides the necessary support. We must systematically establish a shared information platform for resource surveys and regulatory oversight, standardizing mechanisms for information acquisition, storage, processing, publication, and updating. Unified evaluation sets the direction forward. Building on the foundation of unified surveys, and in conjunction with the coordinated preparation and implementation of spatial planning, we should carry out unified assessments of resource and environmental carrying capacity and establish a monitoring and early-warning system for resources and the environment.

　　The effective protection of property rights over natural resource assets is the foundation for building an ecological civilization system and the cornerstone for sustained, healthy economic and social development. We must take unified property rights registration as the basis and accelerate the establishment and improvement of a natural resource asset property rights system characterized by clear ownership, well-defined rights and responsibilities, smooth transfer mechanisms, stringent protection measures, and effective oversight. First, we must speed up property rights confirmation, adhering to the principles of public ownership of resources and statutory property rights, clearly defining the owners of various natural resource assets and appropriately resolving major property disputes in accordance with the law. Second, we must expedite registration and certification: building on the unified real estate registration system, we should promote the unified registration of property rights for all natural ecological spaces—including water flows, forests, mountains, grasslands, wastelands, and tidal flats—achieving “four unifications” in terms of registration agencies, legal bases, registries, and information platforms. Third, we must accelerate the development of a rights framework, establishing a natural resource property rights system and formulating a comprehensive list of rights. On the premise of compliance with planning and land-use regulations, we should grant various types of users the rights to transfer, lease, mortgage, inherit, and contribute equity. Fourth, we must strictly protect the legitimate rights and interests of right holders, treating all entities holding natural resource use rights equally and providing them with fair protection. We should also improve the mechanisms for mediating and resolving property rights disputes and establish systems for compensating damages to natural resources and providing remedies for rights violations.

　　Deepen the reform of the paid-use system for natural resources.

　　The system of paid use of natural resource assets is one of the core institutions within the ecological civilization institutional framework and constitutes an important component of the reform of the property rights system for natural resource assets. Since the reform and opening-up, China has gradually established a system of paid use for natural resource assets owned by the entire people, which has played a significant role in promoting the protection and rational utilization of natural resources and safeguarding the rights and interests of owners. However, major challenges remain, including insufficient coverage of paid use, single methods of payment, unreasonable mechanisms for price formation, imperfect systems for revenue distribution, and inadequate oversight. Deepening the reform of the system of paid use of natural resources is a crucial task for the natural resources authorities.

　　At the end of 2016, the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Reform of the Paid-Use System for Natural Resource Assets Owned by All the People," proposing that "except in cases explicitly stipulated by national laws and policies as eligible for allocation or free use, paid use shall be fully implemented." The document also laid out comprehensive arrangements for improving the paid-use systems for state-owned land resources, water resources, mineral resources, forest resources, grassland resources, marine areas, and islands. Taking the establishment of the Ministry of Natural Resources as an opportunity, we should integrate the reform of the paid-use system for natural resource assets owned by all the people with reforms of the natural resource property rights system, the land space use control system, the natural resource asset management system, the resource tax and fee system, and the ecological protection compensation system. Furthermore, we should closely align these reforms with the development of public resource trading platforms and the inventory and accounting of natural resource assets. We must intensify our efforts to ensure that these related reform measures are swiftly put into practice.

　　Establishing a unified urban-rural construction land market is also an important component of deepening the reform of the paid-use system for natural resources. In addition to advancing the three pilot programs for rural land system reform, implementing the “separation of three rights” for rural residential land and adopting a “multi-subject land supply” approach in urban areas are currently major reform tasks. The “separation of three rights” for residential land essentially aims to activate dormant rural land assets while maintaining the fundamental nature of rural land property rights and ensuring the stability of rural social structures. This move will strongly promote the free flow and equal exchange of factors between urban and rural areas. As for the “multi-subject land supply” in urban areas, it involves shifting land supply from a single government channel to multiple channels involving the government, enterprises, and collectives, moderately liberalizing the primary land market, and focusing on invigorating the secondary land market. This approach not only represents a fundamental requirement for promoting the market-oriented allocation of urban land but also constitutes an indispensable path toward building a unified urban-rural land market.

　　Focus on advancing capacity building for natural resource management.

　　In response to the new situation and new requirements of centralized and unified management of natural resources, we must place capacity building in a prominent position, with the primary focus on strengthening the rule of law in natural resource management and promoting scientific and technological innovation.

　　Ecological rule of law is an international trend in the construction of ecological civilization systems. To advance ecological rule of law, it is essential to strengthen the rule-of-law framework for natural resources. At present, the top priority is to enhance legislation on natural resource management systems in accordance with the principles of green development, prevention first, alignment of rights and responsibilities, and public participation. Emphasis should be placed on formulating and improving laws and regulations concerning the development and protection of natural resources, spatial planning, property rights over natural resource assets, national parks, and ecological conservation and restoration, thereby providing a legal guarantee for the reform of the ecological civilization system.

　　Technological innovation is the greatest driving force behind the development of natural resource management and serves as the fundamental support for transforming the quality and efficiency of natural resource governance. On the one hand, we must accelerate the implementation of the “Three Deep and One Soil” technological innovation initiative, striving to achieve greater breakthroughs in reform measures and make substantive progress in the practical implementation of major innovation tasks. On the other hand, in light of our new roles and redefined positioning, we need to expand our research areas and intensify our innovation efforts—for instance, by strengthening research on ecological processes of natural resources, promoting unified accounting of the ecological value of natural resources, implementing systematic governance projects for mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands, and comprehensively building smart cities, smart oceans, and smart land management systems—thereby effectively enhancing our capacity and level of natural resource management.