Implementation effectiveness,challenges and outlook on the Yangtze River Protection Law
LIAO Zhiwei
Abstract：As China's first comprehensive watershed legislation,the Yangtze River Protection Law of the People's Republic of China has become a solid legal cornerstone for driving the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity of the Yangtze River basin since its implementation five years ago.Based on the performance practices of river basin management agencies and water administrative departments at all levels,this paper systematically analyzes and summarizes the remarkable performance since the law's implementation,covering multiple key areas of river sand mining management,water resource allocation,ecological flow control,planning system improvement,and collaborative governance promotion.Meanwhile,it deeply analyzes the multiple challenges faced by the law's implementation in the critical period of"quality and effectiveness improvement",including increasing pressure on flood and drought disaster prevention,legislative shortcomings in the protection of important water sources,lagging local supporting legislation,and obvious cross-regional law enforcement barriers,as well as insufficient multi-objective coordination,modernization transformation of governance capabilities,and inadequate empowerment by science and technology.All of these put forward new systematic requirements for the law's implementation.On this basis,this paper proposes a targeted countermeasure system,focusing on deepening institutional implementation,bolstering implementation shortcomings,and strengthening systematic governance.Additionally,special legislation improvement,responsibility division refinement,intelligent governance promotion,and coordination mechanism enhancement can help promote the huge transformation of the Yangtze River Protection Law from"institution construction"to"effectiveness release",continuously transform legislative advantages into governance effectiveness,and provide solid legal support for the high-level protection and high-quality development of the Yangtze River basin.
Keywords：Yangtze River Protection Lawimplementation effectivenessrisk challengelegislative improvementgovernance modernizationwatershed protection and governancewater resources allocation and regulation
Publication Date：2026-02-28
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-17(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 1-6 )