The "Reform Plan for the Compensation System for Ecological Environment Damage" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") specifies that from January 1, 2018, the ecological environment damage compensation system will be piloted nationwide, and by 2020, efforts will be made to establish a preliminary ecological environment damage compensation system with clear responsibilities, smooth channels, technical specifications, strong guarantees, adequate compensation, and effective restoration nationwide.

The "Plan" proposes to further clarify the scope, responsible parties, claiming parties, and ways to resolve ecological environment damage compensation through the trial implementation of the ecological environment damage compensation system nationwide, form corresponding appraisal and evaluation management and technical systems, financial guarantees, and operational mechanisms, gradually establish a restoration and compensation system for ecological environment damage, and accelerate the construction of ecological civilization.

The Plan points out that ecological environment damage refers to the adverse changes in environmental and biological elements such as atmosphere, surface water, groundwater, soil, forests, etc. caused by pollution of the environment and destruction of ecology, as well as the degradation of ecosystem functions composed of the above elements. In any of the following circumstances, the liability for compensation for ecological environment damage shall be pursued in accordance with the law: in the event of a major or above sudden environmental incident; Environmental pollution and ecological damage events are prohibited in key ecological functional areas designated in national and provincial main functional area planning, as well as development zones; Other serious consequences that may affect the ecological environment occur.

The Plan specifies that in the pilot areas for improving the national natural resource asset management system, the entrusted provincial government can exercise the responsibility of the owner of all natural resource assets owned by the whole people, and the department responsible for the specific work of compensation for damages; If Guo Wu Yuan directly exercises the ownership of natural resource assets owned by the whole people, the department entrusted to act as the compensation rights holder shall carry out the compensation work for damages. Each province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government) government should formulate relevant work regulations, clarify the division of responsibilities for relevant departments such as land and resources, environmental protection, housing and urban-rural development, water conservancy, agriculture, forestry, etc. to carry out claims work.