Chapter 6 - GFDRR

During natural disaster risk management work,
the Chinese government has attached importance
to the combination of engineering and
nonengineering measures and to the combination
of administrative measures and market
mechanisms. It has comprehensively adopted
legal, engineering, technical, financial, and insurance
tools to improve the efficiency of disaster
reduction and diversify disaster risks for
systematic measures that can maximize policy
effects. The following sections describe the
main practices.
Incorporating Natural Disaster Risk
Management in Economic and Social
Development Plans
For years, the Chinese government has consistently
incorporated natural disaster risk reduction
into its sustainable development strategies
at the national and local levels. In China’s
Agenda in the 21st Century, issued in 1994, the
central government clearly defined the relation
between disaster reduction and ecological and
environmental protection at the national level. In
1998, the nation released the Disaster Reduction
Plan of the People’s Republic of China (1998–
2010), which, for the first time, put forward the
guidelines, goals, main tasks, and major measures
of disaster reduction work in the form of
specialized plans. In 2007, the nation released
the 11th Five-Year Plan on Comprehensive
Disaster Reduction, which explicitly stipulates
that local governments should incorporate disaster
reduction into their economic and social
development plans.
In 2011, the Chinese government issued the
National Comprehensive Disaster Prevention
and Reduction Plan (2011–15), which explicitly
defined the development guidelines, main tasks,
and major projects of China’s disaster reduction
work during the 12th Five-Year Plan period
(2011–15). Moreover, China has promulgated
the National Anti-Drought Plan; the National
12th Five-Year Plan on Geological Disaster
Prevention; the National General Plan on Small
and Medium-Sized River Improvement, High-
Risk Reservoir Reinforcement, and Mountain
Torrents and Geological Disasters Prevention
and Comprehensive Treatment; the National
Middle and Long-Term Development Plan on
Forest Fire Prevention (2009–15); the National
Plan on Protection Against and Mitigation of
Earthquake Disasters (2006–20); the National
Plan for Meteorological Disaster Prevention
(2009–20); and the 12th Five-Year Plan on
Disaster Prevention and Reduction in Urban
and Rural Development.
Improving the Legislative System for Natural
Disaster Risk Management
China attaches great importance to legislation
regarding disaster prevention and reduction
and has enacted a number of laws and regulations
in this regard, thus gradually institutionalizing
its disaster reduction work. Since the
1980s, the nation has promulgated more than 30
laws and regulations concerning disaster prevention
and reduction, including the Emergency
Response Law of the People’s Republic of China,
the Law of the People’s Republic of China
on Water and Soil Conservation, the Law of
the People’s Republic of China on Protection
Against and Mitigation of Earthquake Disasters,
the Flood Control Law of the People’s Republic
of China, the Law of the People’s Republic
of China on Desertification Prevention and
Transformation, the Meteorology Law of the
People’s Republic of China, the Agriculture Law
of the People’s Republic of China, Regulation
on the Prevention and Control of Geological
Disasters, and Regulation on Prevention Against
Meteorological Disaster.
China has established a natural disaster contingency
plan that features cross-cutting and
in-depth coverage. It has released specialized
plans on natural disaster relief, flood control
and drought relief, earthquake resistance and
rescue, geological disaster emergency, largescale
forest fire handling, medical aid, meteorological
disaster prevention, and communication
122 Improving the Assessment of Disaster Risks to Strengthen Financial Resilience