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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 8

Publication Date: August 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.88.10596. Yiming, W., Zhonghua, W., & Zijun, H. (2021). Study on Ecological Protection and Restoration : From the Perspective of a New Public

Governance Model. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(8). 8-17.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Study on Ecological Protection and Restoration : From the

Perspective of a New Public Governance Model

Wu Yiming

School of English for International Business

Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

Guangzhou, China 510420

Wang Zhonghua

Soviet Area Revitalization Research Institute

Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China 330022

He Zijun

School of English for International Business

Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

Guangzhou, China 510420)

ABSTRACT

With the increasingly serious environmental pollution, the sustainable

development of human society has become the focus in China and even the world,

which makes the theoretical research on environmental governance become

particularly important. According to the change process of environmental

governance theories, a theory can solve or explain some problems in reality, but

with the development and change of economy and society, the theory needs to be

innovated and integrated continuously to achieve good environmental governance

and continuous improvement. This paper firstly sorts out the historical context and

evolution logic of environmental governance theories in China and abroad, and

scientifically divides and reviews the development of the theories. Secondly, this

paper researches on China’s first batch of ecological protection and restoration

pilot projects of MRFFLG in Ganzhou city through various kinds of sources of data

collection ,such as semi-structured interviews, field visits and second-hand data

collection. It is found that environmental governance changes from operational

applied governance to exploring a new paradigm of multi-subjects governance.

Moreover, the environmental governance theory is integrated and innovated from

several dimensions, such as governance objectives, policies and methods. This

paper also puts forward the multiple approaches of environmental governance, and

analyzes and solves problems with the multiple logic of environmental governance,

and sums up the experience and lessons of environmental governance practice.

Finally, this paper looks forward to the theoretical development of environmental

governance, which has far-reaching significance for how to construct the

environmental governance model with Chinese characteristics and effectively

promote the sustainable development of the environment.

Key Words : new public governance model; ecological protection ; ecological

restoration; MRFFLG model

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Yiming, W., Zhonghua, W., & Zijun, H. (2021). Study on Ecological Protection and Restoration : From the Perspective of a New Public Governance

Model. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(8). 8-17.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.88.10596

INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, governments of various countries around the world have worked hard to

reduce the economic and political costs of environmental governance, trying to fulfill the

political commitment to environment and social justice by using industrial and civic

organizations.

The political commitment’s drivers include an emphasis on "small government" as an indicator

of efficiency, increased demand for limited public funds, increased willingness of the private

sector to increase its governance role, and belief in the relative effectiveness of private

instruments relative to government regulation.

The social, economic and management crisis in western countries promotes the transformation

of the research paradigm of public management and public administration theory [1]. The new

theoretical paradigm represented by "governance" puts forward pluralistic, self-organized,

cooperative and non-ideological public governance model, and establishes a good governance

model. A new model of administration emerged, which abandons the monopoly and coercion

of traditional public administration and emphasizes the common role of government,

enterprises, groups and individuals [2]. The new type of government wants the government to

fully tap the potential of various management and governance tools [3], and not just expects the

government to do and provide something. It also wants the government to be self-aware and

do what it should and can do, rather than ask the government to cope with all day [4].

A new type of network society also wants the government to pay attention to the systematic

cooperative relationship of equal dialogue between various organizations in the network

society, rather than impose a top-down hierarchical social order [5]. To sum up, the new type of

public governance model is called pluralistic, democratic, cooperative, and de-ideological

public governance. In contrast, private governance occurs when non-governmental entities,

including private organizations, dispute settlement organizations, or other third-party groups,

develop rules and/or standards that are binding on the "quality of life and opportunities for the

general public". In short, here, private rather than public entities are making public policies.

After more than 30 years of rapid development, China has grown into a middle-income

economy. According to the average exchange rate of RMB and USD in 2018, China is the second

largest economy, with Chinese mainland gross domestic product (GDP) of about $13.6 trillion

and US gross domestic product (GDP) of $20.49 trillion (close to US$20.5 trillion). In terms of

purchasing power parity, China is the largest economy in the world. According to the

purchasing power parity (PPP) method, China’s total GDP has surpassed that of the United

States, and it is 1.23 times that of the United States during the same period, becoming the

world’s largest economy. This rapid economic development is accompanied by many social and

environmental challenges, including serious regional inequality and serious concerns for

environmental sustainability. The ecosystem in some regions has been seriously degraded for

a long time because of the influence of some factors such as continuous population growth,

high-intensity land development and construction activities, and wild exploitation and

utilization of natural resources. In these ecological degraded areas, China has successively

organized and implemented a series of major ecological protection and construction projects,

and has achieved positive results in improving trees and grass vegetation and forest coverage

rate. However, due to the lack of systematic and comprehensive consideration between the

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 8, August-2021

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

projects, there are problems such as spontaneous operation, factor segmentation and good

local effect, but the overall effect is weak, and the ecosystem service function has not been

effectively restored and improved.

According to the degree of interaction between citizens and public administrative power,

international academia divides the governance model of ecological protection and restoration

into four models, including ruling governance model [6], management governance model,

service-oriented governance model and multi-center governance model. With the change of

social system, the governance model changes from complete public governance model to public

and private joint governance, and even complete private governance. Combined with the

current situation of the public management in China, domestic scholars also expound the

concept of "governance" from different perspectives. The only authoritative governance model

organized by the state and the government is developed into a new model of social public

governance that should be jointly undertaken by the formation of network governance [7].

This study takes “mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands”(MRFFLG for short )

project in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi province, PRC as the case study objective. Through the field

investigation, the study examines the government in the process of ecological management of

MRFFLG system, and explains why the public governance model is superior to the private

governance model, which provides experience for other central provinces to learn from.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Governance theory is the general development trend of human society since the 1980s and

1990s. Governance is the sum total of social affairs managed by public organizations or

individuals. It can make all kinds of interests harmonious and take corresponding joint action.

It includes both formal rules and systems that have the right to arrange for people to abide by

and informal institutional arrangements that are in common interest agreed by some others [8].

The research on public governance of ecological environment in foreign countries began

earlier, and expounded the theoretical thinking and practical experience of public governance

of ecological environment from different angles. The phenomenon of "Tragedy of Commons",

"Hitchhiking", "Giddens Paradox" and "Neighborhood Avoidance Effect" have become the basis

for scholars to analyze environmental governance[9]. American political economist Eleanor

Ostrom’s public governance theory analyzes and discusses theoretical models such as "Tragedy

of the Commons", "Prisoner Theory" and "Logic of Collective Action". At the same time, she

starts with the problem of small-scale public resources, develops the innovative institutional

theory of self-organization and governance of public affairs, opens up new ways for people

facing the tragedy of the choice of the commons, and provides the institutional basis for

independent governance to avoid public affairs degradation, protect public affairs, and make

sustainable use of public affairs so as to enhance the collective welfare of mankind[10].At

present, it is generally accepted that the definition of environmental governance is the whole

process of how to make ecological environment decision and who makes the decision, which

involves natural resource management decision-making and the framework for managers to

make decision that includes laws, policies, rules, government agencies and formal procedures,

etc[11]. The following studies have been done by foreign scholars in the field of public

environmental governance: B. Peters focuses on government governance model [12], Spence

reconsiders the role in corporate governance in environmental governance [13], Ekaterina pays

attention to multi-cooperation and shared responsibility for environmental governance with