Evolution of marine ranching policies in China: Review, performance and prospects

Marine ranching is an important tool for resource enhancement and ecologically sustainable development. Chinese government has promulgated a series of policies to develop marine ranching vigorously. Analyzing the evolutionary progression of marine ranching policies is necessary to improve the management of marine ranching and maximize its effectiveness. This paper conducted an empirical analysis on 92 policy documents, through the content analysis method and ROSTCM6 software. These policies can be divided into three stages: the initial formation and appearance period (1991-2005), the integrated framework with rapid development period (2006-2015) and the habitat restoration and sustainable development expansion period (after 2015). The study found that the management framework of marine ranching has continually improved; a basic technical regulation system has gradually formed; ecology priority has been increasingly obvious. However, some limitations including the hindrance of ex post control, the lack of the coordination among diverse participants and insufficient supervision of ecological impacts on adjacent sea areas still exist and deserve attention during the evolution of marine ranching policy. At the end, the analysis results suggest that the policy systems require improvement to develop a real-time control system, expand coordination channels among stakeholders, strengthen the supervision of ecological impacts on adjacent sea areas, adhere to sustainable development goals and promote research on solutions that curb global warming in marine ranching construction in the future.