Acceleration of Green Transformation and Development in CZT Ecological Green Heart

Focus on Four Major Directions, Implement 161 Specific Tasks and 60 Landmark Projects

On September 2, the Information Office of the Hunan Provincial People's Government held a policy briefing on the "Action Plan for Accelerating Green Transformation and Development in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Ecological Green Heart." The action plan was reviewed and approved by the Commission for Deepening Overall Reform of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and the executive meeting of the Hunan Provincial People's Government. The document was officially issued on August 12.

The Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan (CZT) Ecological Green Heart is the ecological hub and urban integration center of the CZT Metropolitan Area. In December 2025, with the approval of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating Green Transformation and Development of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Ecological Green Heart," entrusting Hunan with the significant mission of exploring green transformation and development. The newly-issued action plan fully aligns with the requirements for national implementation plans. It delineates an implementation area covering the green heart, its three surrounding functional zones, and nine key industrial parks. Focusing on the four priorities—ecological quality improvement, value transformation, urban-rural integration, and collaborative governance, the plan details 161 specific tasks in eleven major categories and outlines the first batch of 60 landmark supporting projects. This initiative aims to establish a promotion system characterized by task-based lists, scheduling-based projects, targeted reforms, and regional coordination.

Key tasks will be laid out in detailed lists across multiple sectors, including improving the ecological environment of the green heart, enhancing its ecological quality, reinforcing its safety resilience, vigorously developing ecological industries, accelerating green industrial transformation, improving green infrastructure, promoting urban-rural green development, and advocating green lifestyles. Responsible entities and timelines are clearly defined for each item, with quarterly progress reviews and semi-annual evaluations.

The action plan will focus on a number of landmark projects with excellent ecological benefits, large investment scale, and strong driving effects, including water ecological environment restoration projects, restoration and quality improvement projects for abandoned mines, integrated cultural and tourism projects, a national germplasm resources conservation nursery for medicinal herbs, and the CZT ecological greenway project. A list of major projects will be compiled, and a linkage mechanism for dynamic project adjustments and factor support will be established.

Reforms in key areas will be prioritized, with a focus on promoting the construction of a gross ecosystem product (GEP) accounting system, facilitating the value realization of forest carbon sink, rolling out a "green heart carbon benefits" incentive mechanism, advancing the marketization of rural collective land designated for business-related construction, and strengthening cross-regional spatial collaborative management, thereby producing a series of pragmatic, effective, and exemplary institutional innovations.

In terms of regional coordination, the development vision of "one city" will be strengthened, and a sound and regular mechanism for collaborative consultation established.

The action plan sets out "two phased" objectives. By the end of 2028, a number of landmark projects will be completed in fields such as ecological protection and restoration, research and development of new quality productive forces, public service improvement, and green infrastructure construction, with the "leading goose effect" initially taking shape. Innovative pilot programs will be progressed steadily, yielding a set of practical outcomes that are implementable and verifiable. By the end of 2030, breakthrough progress will be achieved in key areas such as ecological environment safety resilience, innovative transformation of ecological value, regional integration for joint protection and shared benefits, and the coordinated and efficient operation of institutional mechanisms. These efforts aim to explore replicable and scalable experiences, providing a "Hunan model" for the protection and development of ecological green hearts in metropolitan areas nationwide. 

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn. 

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn