The latest development in Nongfu Spring’s "illegal and unauthorized excavation of access roads and destruction of forests" in Wuyishan National Park has attracted widespread attention.
On January 13, an insider of the Wuyishan municipal government in Fujian Province told Surging News that "after investigation, the online report of Nongfu Spring’s unauthorized excavation of the sidewalk deforestation did not involve forest land. The sidewalk was rented by Nongfu Spring to the collective land of Daanyuan villagers, and it is a temporary passage. After the construction is completed, Nongfu Spring will also be restored as required. As for the deforestation situation, an investigation has been filed, and the conclusion of the investigation will be announced soon."
At the same time, surging news reporters obtained a number of government documents showing that multiple departments of Wuyishan City participated in the investigation, and the investigation concluded that "there is no dispute between the construction part of the river and the Da’anyuan Scenic Area." On January 12, the Wuyishan National Park Administration issued a notice on the matter, saying that the site of the water intake point of the Nongfu Spring Wuyishan Project is not within the scope of the national park, and showed a satellite schematic diagram.
The documents also mention that the local tourism company that reported Nongfu Spring this time had hoped to be acquired by Nongfu Spring or the local government after the Nongfu Spring Wuyishan project was settled, but the company failed. The company has since repeatedly **** to the local government, and a document from the Wuyishan municipal government in response to the company said that "there is no dispute between the Nongfu Spring project and Daanyuan Scenic Area, and there is no infringement on the company’s interests."
However, the whistleblower emphasized that the reason for reflecting it was more from the perspective of the local environment, and he was very sad about the deforestation. "I will resolve the dispute through legal channels."
report
Public information shows that Nongfu Spring (Wuyishan, Fujian) Drinking Water Co., Ltd. was registered in August 2017 and is a key project of the Wuyishan Municipal Government to attract investment.
The project began EIA approval in April 2018 and passed the EIA approval in June of that year.
Nongfu Spring was first reported as a problem with the environmental impact assessment, and the whistleblower was Da’an Yuan Ecotourism Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Da’an Yuan Company).
Da’anyuan Ecotourism Co., Ltd. is a company that develops ecological agriculture and forestry tourism projects in Wuyishan. The person in charge of the company, Qiang Huanrong, used to be the deputy director of Xingcun Commune in Wuyishan City. After going to sea, he established "Sumin Travel Agency" to operate homestays in Wuyishan. In 2003, he began to operate Da’anyuan local tourism projects through the company.
"Da’anyuan’s right to operate and use tourism resources is limited to surface landscape development and surface utilization," said a local person close to the incident. "After the Nongfu Spring project was launched, Qiang Huanrong believed that the project would harm its interests. He talked to the government and Nongfu Spring many times and asked to acquire the company."
This statement was confirmed by Nongfu Spring, saying that the two sides did exchange information in this regard, but they did not reach an agreement.
For this matter, Qiang Huanrong did not provide an explanation in an interview with reporters.
Afterwards, Da’anyuan Company frequently reported to the government, the first to report problems with the environmental impact assessment.
A person from the Wuyishan Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau told The Paper, "Da’anyuan Company once reported that there was no public participation in the EIA of the project, and we also replied to the company at that time, because the project is a special project EIA and does not require public participation. In fact, we attach great importance to this project. According to the classification of this project, we generally only need to report the table of contents, but we do it in full accordance with the requirements of the higher-level project report, and the EIA is quite strict."
The person particularly wants to clarify to the outside world, "Previously, the media reported that a third-party organization said that there were major changes to the project that required a re-environmental impact assessment, which refers to the problem of digging access roads for this project. We actually want to find this third-party company and ask him where his professionalism is. According to the latest regulations, first of all, the major changes to the project that require a re-environmental impact assessment refer to 24 industries, such as Nongfu Spring, which belongs to the industrial category and is not in this industry category to be re-evaluated. Even if the major changes to be re-evaluated refer to the scale, nature, location, production process, and environmental protection measures of the project, this kind of access road in Nongfu Spring belongs to temporary construction, but the location is offset. How can there be a reason for re-environmental impact assessment?"
In an interview with surging news, Nongfu Spring said that before the Wuyishan water extraction project was established, the Fujian Provincial Water Conservancy and Hydropower Exploration and Design Institute conducted a detailed investigation, demonstration and issued a report on the water resources of the project. On February 28, 2018, under the auspices of the Wuyishan Water Conservancy Bureau, 5 expert group members of the Water Conservancy Bureau and leaders of relevant 5 functional areas of business in the city were hired to review the water resources demonstration report (draft for review) of the water resources demonstration project of the drinking natural water production line construction project of Nongfu Spring (Wuyishan, Fujian) Drinking Water Co., Ltd. After repeated research and demonstration, the water resources demonstration report was approved. During the review process, deputies to the Municipal People’s Congress and members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference sent representatives to participate in the supervision.
On April 13, 2018, after review by the Wuyishan Water Conservancy Bureau, it was found that the application materials for water extraction of the project were complete and met the legal requirements. According to the expert review opinion of the "Nongfu Spring (Wuyishan, Fujian) Water Drawing Project Water Resources Demonstration Report", the water extraction requirements of Nongfu Spring were approved, that is, the annual water intake of 2.17 million cubic meters.
Regarding environmental issues that have attracted much attention, Nongfu Spring told reporters that "the Nongfu Spring Wuyishan project is a drinking water production and construction project, which complies with the provisions of the" Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalogue (2011) " (revised in 2013) and other documents, and conforms to the national industrial and environmental protection policies."
How many forests were destroyed?
The core issue of this public opinion is that Nongfu Spring destroyed trees in the national park in the process.
"Nongfu Spring destroyed a lot of trees during the construction of the sidewalk, but the Forestry Bureau reported to the province that only 54 trees were destroyed. This number is definitely wrong," Qiang Huanrong told The Paper. "How much of this needs to be assessed by a third-party organization."
The Wuyishan government official replied, "The Forestry Bureau has gone to the field to investigate, and the Forestry Bureau has also filed an investigation. How to punish will be punished according to regulations, but it needs to be emphasized that these trees were not within the scope of the national park at that time."
On January 12, Wuyishan National Park’s WeChat account issued a survey report on online public opinion on "suspected Nongfu Spring night destruction of Wuyishan National Park forest area", which mentioned the problems reflected by Qiang Huanrong.
"[The Nongfu Spring project] destroyed trees in the forest land immediately adjacent to the water intake point and built a construction access road with a length of about 200 meters," the notice said. "After verification, there is indeed a construction access road, and after on-site measurement, the length is about 150 meters. However, the construction of the access road was in October 2019, and the area was not included in the scope of Wuyishan National Park at that time. The" Wuyishan National Park Master Plan "approved by the Fujian Provincial People’s Government on December 25, 2019 was newly transferred to the scope of the national park. The deforestation situation has been registered and investigated by the Wuyishan Forest Public Security Department on November 18, 2019."
It is worth noting that the above-mentioned documents show that the Wuyishan Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, the Wuyishan Forestry Bureau and the Wuyishan Water Conservancy Bureau all participated in the investigation and concluded that "there is no dispute between the Nongfu Spring project and the Da’anyuan Scenic Area".
conflict of interests
What is unavoidable is the conflicting interests of the relevant parties behind this report.
A government official in Wuyishan told the surging news reporter, "Da’anyuan Company believes that the government’s’one woman and two marriages’, but in fact, Da’anyuan Company only obtains the right to operate and use tourism resources, and only involves the development of water surface landscapes and water surface utilization. The Nongfu Spring project obtains the use of water resources. The two projects belong to different approval content, and there is no such thing as’one woman and two marriages’."
In addition to this question, Da’anyuan’s main question is that the construction of the Nongfu Spring project is within its business scope and damages its interests, demanding compensation.
Nongfu Spring believes that the focus of the contradiction between the two companies lies in the "Taiping Ocean Water Rafting" project of Da’anyuan Ecotourism Company. Since the water intake point of Nongfu Spring is located upstream of the rafting project, Da’anyuan believes that once Nongfu Spring draws water upstream, it will lead to smaller water flow and affect the business of its water rafting project.
In this regard, the Wuyishan Municipal Government sent two letters to Da’anyuan Company on January 8 and January 10, 2020, expressing three aspects: first, the Nongfu Spring Project is a construction within the river channel, and there is no dispute; second, the Nongfu Spring Project does not involve the scope of forest land leased by Da’anyuan, and Nongfu Spring and Da’anyuan Village have signed a relevant lease agreement, Da’anyuan Company has no right to block work; third, if Da’anyuan Company believes that there is a problem, it can take legal channels.
In a report obtained by the reporter, the Wuyishan Municipal Government’s summary of the special meeting document on Da’anyuan Company’s report on Nongfu Spring shows that after investigation by multiple departments, many problems in Da’anyuan were also found, such as the development of Da’anyuan tourism project without legal administrative approval; at that time, the Yangzhuang Township Government made it clear that Da’anyuan Company did not pay 20,000 yuan per year as required by the contract after signing the business contract; it also included the existence of Da’anyuan Company’s development land without approval.
"As a key project introduced by the Wuyishan municipal government, the Nongfu Spring project is in full legal compliance. I hope the Internet can view the problem more rationally and not be deceived by one-sided information," the above-mentioned government official told Surging News.
Nongfu Spring said that the fact of this project has a protective effect on the local ecology, "On the one hand, it will definitely not affect the water consumption of residents, because the water withdrawal of the project only accounts for 5.71% of Longjing Source Stream, 2.92% of the average water supply of Daanyuan tributaries, and 0.39% of the total amount of Xixi Stream; on the other hand, there was an economic forest upstream of its water intake, and Daanyuan villagers in Daanyuan Village had cut down trees from this forest land for sale in the past. On October 21, 2019, Nongfu Spring and Daanyuan villagers in Daanyuan Village signed an agreement. According to the agreement, the villagers will no longer cut down trees upstream of the water source, and Nongfu Spring will give 200,000 yuan of economic compensation for the protection of the water source every year."
In an interview with The Paper, Qiang Huanrong emphasized that "I do not agree with the conclusions of the government’s investigation, including the scope of our company’s lease, but the reason why I reflect it is more for the local environment. I have also been in charge of forestry when I worked in the government before, and I am very sad about the deforestation. As for my dispute, I will resolve it through legal channels."
