Promoting ecosystem protection and restoration, clarifying funding incentive standards, the newly revised management measures are announced.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance issued a notice revising the "Regulations on the Management of Funds for Key Ecological Protection and Restoration Projects", clarifying the financial support policies for the integrated protection and restoration projects of mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, and sands, as well as the ecological restoration projects of historical abandoned mines during the "Fifteen-Year Plan" period, standardizing the management of fund use, and promoting the protection and restoration of ecosystems. It is understood that the funds for key ecological protection and restoration projects refer to transfer payments arranged by the central government through the general public budget, used for the key ecological protection and restoration projects such as integrated protection and restoration of mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, and sands, as well as ecological restoration of historical abandoned mines. The implementation period for eligible key ecological protection and restoration projects is 3 years. In terms of central government subsidies, for the integrated protection and restoration projects of mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, and sands, known as "mountain-water projects", the support has been increased, with the central government subsidy ratio raised and the maximum subsidy for regional projects within the province set at 75%, not exceeding 20 billion yuan. It also clearly supports cross-provincial joint application projects for the first time, with a maximum subsidy of 80% for cross-provincial projects, not exceeding 25 billion yuan. For ecological restoration projects of historical abandoned mines, the central government subsidy ratio is 60% and the maximum subsidy per project is not more than 3 billion yuan. According to the management regulations, the funds for key ecological protection and restoration projects cannot be used for projects with clear responsible entities for restoration, projects that do not meet national control requirements such as natural protection areas, ecological protection red lines, and farmland protection red lines, and expenses for grand but impractical landscape projects such as squares and sculptures.