China: Officials Introduce Development Plan for Fujian Meizhou Bay

Officials Introduce Development Plan for Fujian Meizhou Bay.

The objective of the Fujian Meizhou Bay Navigation Improvement Project for China is to improve the capacity of the main navigation channel and enhance the operational management capacity of Meizhou Bay Harbor.

Some of the negative and mitigation measures include:

a) at the project planning stage, the local socioeconomic impacts of the project were taken as a key factor for option optimization and comparison;

b) the design was optimized to reduce the amount of dredging, rock blasting and backfilling in order to avoid affecting aquaculture and fishing households, reduce the amount of withdrawal of the right to use sea areas and fishing facility demolition, and minimize the impact on the local socioeconomic conditions and people’s living standard;

c) strengthen the collection of basic information, make an in-depth analysis of the local present socioeconomic conditions and future prospect, and develop a feasible resettlement action plan, or RAP based on the local practical conditions to ensure that the affected persons, or APs will not suffer losses due to the project;

d) encourage public participation actively and accept public supervision; and

e) strengthen internal and external monitoring, establish an efficient and unobstructed feedback mechanism and channel, and shorten the information processing cycle to ensure that issues arising from project implementation are solved timely.

[mappress]

Press Release, September 18, 2012