Comparison of ecological protection and restoration technology systems and their standards at home and abroad

The ecological protection and restoration technology system and its standards serve as crucial support for achieving systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, and deserts. We evaluated the current status and problems of ecological protection and restoration technology system and standards construction in China, by comparing and analyzing the technology systems and standards of the United States (America) and the United Kingdom (Europe) with those of China. We further proposed optimization paths. The natural resource protection and ecological restoration technology systems in European and American countries demonstrate a high degree of systematicness and refinement, with technical standards covering the entire process. They emphasize ecological benefits and biodiversity conservation, and highlight the collaborative participation of multiple stakeholders. In contrast, the standards of such system in China face deficiencies in terms of quantity, structure, timeliness, and systematicness. These problems manifest as a limited number of technical standards, an excessively high proportion of comprehensive construction-related technical standards, a lack of key technical standards for management and protection, as well as precision ecological restoration, and insufficient consideration of the ecological environmental impacts of technology implementation. To address these problems, we proposed countermeasures and suggestions, such as constructing a hierarchical and classified technology standard system, improving technology guidelines based on natural solutions, promoting the transformation of national key research and development project outcomes, establishing a dynamic revision mechanism, constructing an ecological protection and restoration technology database, and formulating technical practice ecological compensation standards.