The Jianghuai Ecological Corridor is located between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River Basin in the Eastern Route Project of the South-to-North Water Diversion, with the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal as the trunk line, which consists of five cities, namely, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Huai'an, Suqian and Xuzhou. Clear short-term and long-term goals have been set for the construction of the Jianghuai Ecological Corridor. By 2020, the ecological environment in the areas along the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project will be significantly improved, and an ecological and economic corridor with efficient space utilization and agglomeration, superior ecological environment, optimized industrial structure and interconnected regions will be basically completed. By 2030, an overall pattern of coordination between social and economic development and environment protection in the areas along the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project will be established, and the Jianghua Ecological Corridor will become the demonstration zone for ecological environmental management of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. “We will plan and develop the Jianghuai Ecological Corridor along the South-to-North Water Transfer Project from a high starting point, and build a safety barrier of the Jianghuai region with the Corridor as the main axis”, this is a requirement clearly proposed in the Report of Jiangsu Province’s 13rd Party Congress and the Report on the Work of Jiangsu Provincial Government. Since 2017, Jiangsu Province has advanced economic and social transformation process through promoting ecological protection, and has been committed to seeking a new path of “focusing on ecological conservation and pursuing green development” for the five cities in the Jianghuai Ecological Corridor, in order to ensure long-term stability of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project. This week, Professor Liu Zhibiao, Dean of Yangtze IDEI, held discussions with relevant experts and scholars on the topic “How to Construct the Jianghuai Ecological Corridor”.
