Natural Resource Asset Protection and Utilization Planning Based on Insights from Land Storage

Abstract

The compilation of plans for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population is of great practical significance in supporting the preservation and appreciation of natural resource assets, preventing the loss of state-owned assets, and realizing the reform goal of unified management of natural resource assets. However, the planplanning for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets in China is still at the exploratory stage, with a lack of normative technical procedures and preparation guidelines. Land storage strengthens the management of land assets and helps to realize the preservation and appreciation of land assets, which can provide supporting evidence for the protection and utilization of other natural resource assets. Therefore, on the basis of analyzing the mechanisms of land storage, and drawing on the theory, methods, and practical experience of land storage, this paper extends the land storage system to the protection and utilization management of other natural resource assets, developing a “body and two wings” planning concept for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets, while hoping to provide a useful reference for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets in China. The study found that the theory, method, and practice of land storage meet the needs of natural resource asset protection and management. The proposed plans for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population, mainly through storage, can not only play a basic role in protecting public-welfare natural resource assets and improving ecological functions, but can also play a key role in the operational management of natural resource assets in terms of optimizing resource allocation, improving the efficiency of resource development and utilization, and promoting high-quality development. This is a valuable study that contributes to realization of the reform goal of unified management of natural resource assets, and which can provide a reference for the preparation of natural resource asset plans in various regions.

1. Introduction

Over many years, due to problems such as the fragmentation and decentralization of departments, the management of natural resource assets in China has become increasingly fragmented, the status of asset owners has been subsumed and weakened, asset returns have continued to flow to individual groups, and national interests have been seriously damaged. It is vital that the natural resource asset management system is reformed. Since 2013, China’s natural resource asset management system has existed in a process of comprehensively deepening reform [1,2,3,4,5] and a system of paid use of natural resource assets owned by the general population has been gradually established, which has played a positive role in promoting the protection and rational use of natural resources and safeguarding the rights and interests of owners [6,7]. However, at present, China’s natural resource asset management system is not perfect, and supervision is insufficient. The market does not play a decisive role in allocating resources, ownership is still not in place, rights and interests are not implemented, management rights and responsibilities are not clear, and other problems remain prominent. The problems of excessive resource development, weak protection, and ecological degradation are still serious. There is an urgent need to speed up reform from the perspectives of conceptual understanding and supporting systems. Against this background, exploring and studying the protection and utilization plans of natural resource assets, including classification of reserves, management, and reasonable utilization of assets, is the responsibility of the owners of natural resource assets, and is also an important means to implement owners’ rights and interests, prevent the loss of state-owned assets, and achieve the reform goal of unified management of natural resource assets [8].

At present, many countries in the world have relatively mature management models for the protection and utilization of their natural resource assets. For example, Russia has developed a comprehensive management model for natural resource assets, wherein government departments uniformly formulate policies and manage the classification and utilization of natural resource assets [9]. The United States pays attention to value realization, has built a property rights trading market, and has developed the world’s most complete natural resource asset value management system [10,11,12]. The UK does not have a unified natural resource management organization at the central level; however, in order to effectively exercise responsibility over the crown’s natural resource assets, the government has set up a special royal real estate management organization to uniformly exercise the responsibilities of the owners and managers of gold and silver minerals and most offshore nonenergy minerals [13]. Japan is poor in natural resources; thus, the Japanese government is paying increasing attention to the protection and rational use of natural resources, building a robust property rights system for natural resources and their trading as private rights [14,15,16]. The management of Australia’s natural resources is mainly in the hands of the state governments; the states also set up relevant agencies to uniformly manage their natural resources [17,18,19]. On the whole, although the various international models for management of natural resource assets are different, there are still many aspects that China can learn from, such as realizing comprehensive management based on the classified management of natural resource assets, building a sound property rights system, and promoting the market-oriented allocation of natural resource assets [20,21,22]. China’s research in the field of natural resource asset management started late and is still in the exploratory stage in practical terms [22]. At present, studies on the protection and utilization of six natural resource asset types, namely land, minerals, forests, grasslands, wetlands, and oceans, have mostly focused on land and other functional natural resource assets, and a more comprehensive planning and control system has been developed with land storage as an important aspect [23,24]. According to the main implementers and management organization models, China has implemented the “1 + 7 + N” land storage model in Wuhan [25], a “government-led” land storage model in Hangzhou [26], and a “market-led” model in Shanghai [27]. In contrast, studies on the relationship of public welfare to natural resource assets such as forests and wetlands have focused on the quantitative protection of individual resources [28,29]. The key is to control the base of natural resources via bottom-line thinking, so as to achieve the “conservation” of resources. However, the assets and associated capital are not touched. This approach does not offer protection, utilization, and management of natural resource assets from the perspective of the assets themselves, and cannot truly reflect the scarcity of natural resources. In the processes of protection and utilization, a problem may arise in that the number and scale of assets remain stable while the actual value decreases [30]. It can be seen from a review of the existing literature that the approaches to protection and utilization of natural resource assets are mostly dominated by single elements [31,32,33,34,35]; however, research on the protection and utilization of natural resource assets in the sense of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands is almost nonexistent, and there is a lack of established practices and mechanisms for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets falling into these key types. The existing studies on the protection and utilization of each resource type also suffer from different levels of progress, inconsistent structure, and different indexing systems, and thus cannot be directly applied to the unified management of natural resources owned by the general population.

As an important strategy in land resource planning and control, land storage effectively realizes the optimal allocation of land resources, improves the level of intensive and economical use of land resources, increases the total amounts of local and limited land resources and transforms unused land resources, and promotes the rational and effective use of land. At the same time, land storage strengthens the asset management of land resources and realizes the value maintenance and appreciation of land assets, which can provide supporting evidence for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets. In view of this, based on the theory that mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands contain resources necessary for our well-being, starting from the goal of unified management of natural resource assets, and on the basis of the status quo approach to the protection and utilization of single-element natural resource assets, this paper uses the relatively mature land storage system as a reference to expand the concept of land storage to other natural resource asset types. Thus, a planning approach for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population, considering all factors and meeting the requirements of unified management, can be constructed, with the aim of providing useful references for each region to plan for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population, in order to realize the preservation and appreciation of natural resource assets and promote the improvement of the natural resource asset supervision system.

2. Overview of Land Storage and Its Previous Applications

2.1. Definition of Land Storage

Land storage refers to the action of governments at all levels to acquire land-use rights through repossession, acquisition, expropriation, and other means according to market demand and the requirements of territorial and spatial master plans, and to comprehensively use legal, administrative, and economic means to carry out storage or preliminary development and arrangement for land supply.

2.1.1. Planning to Guide Conservation and Utilization

The implementation and management of land storage has become an important aspect of land asset management [36]. The Land Reserve Management Measures refine the preparation and submission procedures, suggesting that each region needs to prepare a three-year rolling plan for land storage according to socioeconomic factors and various development plans, making a chronological arrangement for storage work in order to optimize the allocation of stock land resources and improve the level of intensive and economical land use, while also providing a basis for measuring capital requirements and the amount of special bonds for land reserve. Land storage institutions review the land acquisition methods and compensation to ensure that land parcels have clear property rights, and apply for registration procedures with the goal of meeting the storage standards.

2.1.2. Realizing Asset Appreciation by “Making Land”

Land storage institutions acquire land storage products by “making land”, which means that the “uncultivated land” and “coarse land” that do not meet basic construction conditions are demolished, leveled, consolidated, and organized, and supporting infrastructure is constructed to create “net land” suitable for development and construction, thus increasing the production and construction potential and the economic benefits per unit area of land. This, in turn, increases the value of land assets and clarifies the rights and interests of landowners [37].

2.1.3. Government Control and Market Efficiency

The implementation of the dominant position of the government in land storage operations can effectively realize governmental control over the primary land market and enhance the government’s ability to exert this control at the macro level [38]. At the same time, in order to reduce the pressure on government reserve funds, the introduction of market participation can fully enable a regulation and allocation role of the market in land storage. In the financing of land storage, the introduction of market mechanisms can broaden the financing channels of reserve funds, reduce the financial burden on the government, and bring into play the effectiveness of the market in allocating and regulating public resources. A land storage model that applies the government’s dominant position in addition to market participation can guarantee governmental control at the macro level, while also allowing market allocation of resources and guaranteeing the effective implementation of landowners’ rights and interests.

2.1.4. The Trend of Joint Storage

Early land storage projects were mainly carried out with regard to specific plots, and storage, development, and supply were carried out separately for a given “uncultivated land” plot; with urban development, land storage gradually developed from plot storage to overall storage, which is the implementation of “unified storage, unified development, unified supporting, unified supply” for a given area of land, with overall management of production, living, and ecological functions to achieve a holistic and systematic transformation and renewal of urban space.

2.2. Applicability to Other Natural Resource Assets

As an important means of land asset development, utilization, and protection, the operational processes and management mechanisms of land storage have been developed into a relatively mature planning and control system after years of exploration and innovation, which can provide a reference for the protection and utilization of other natural resource assets [39].

2.2.1. Joint Storage Mechanism

China’s multiple natural resource products and their storage management have long been divided based on the “mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands” community concept, on the basis of natural resource asset data mapping; the development from single-plot storage to overall land storage, and then to the joint storage of natural resource assets, reflects the value of storage as an important means of asset protection and utilization which performs a comprehensive regulatory function [40] and which is conducive to the construction of a natural resource management system with Chinese characteristics.

2.2.2. Classified Value Realization

For operational natural resource assets, idle land, strategic minerals, and commercial forests are incorporated into the storage plan through replacement, purchase, and recycling at maturity, and value is realized through market mechanisms by promoting asset appreciation through predevelopment and operational management, so as to transfer the asset use rights through bidding and auction. Public-welfare natural resource assets are mostly realized indirectly in the form of “ecology + products” [41]. Transforming natural resources into natural resource products with economic value is an important way to enhance the value of natural resource assets with public interest, and the process of asset appreciation is also the process of realizing the rights and interests of natural resource asset owners.

2.2.3. Systematic Reserve Planning

Reserve planning can increase the economic and ecological benefits of natural resource assets through the development, regulation, and restoration of all kinds of natural resource assets which are acquired and stored according to the needs of the social market. At the same time, it can guide the protection and utilization of natural resource assets, so that the collection, storage, and transfer of natural resource assets can truly meet the rational needs of the market, avoiding a series of problems such as contradiction between supply of and demand for natural resources, pricing chaos, and disorderly competition mechanisms, and guaranteeing the effective preservation and appreciation of natural resource assets [42].

2.3. Particularity of Natural Resource Assets

As a union of economic, social, and ecological values, natural resource assets are diverse and are unevenly distributed throughout the regions of China. Their particularity affects the planning and management of storage, value realization, and market mechanisms, and brings challenges to the unified storage of natural resource assets.

2.3.1. Status of Protection and Utilization Planning for Each Resource

Storage is oriented towards the regions and types of natural resources, mainly concerning land, minerals, forests, grasslands, wetlands, and seas. Due to differentiating factors such as solar radiation and surface conditions, natural resources show an uneven spatial distribution, with significant geographical differences in their characteristics, quantity, and quality, and varying degrees of ecological risk and restoration urgency. The existing asset protection and utilization planning mostly takes into account resource retention and use control, with single-factor management approaches and insufficient attention paid to asset attributes. Under a long-term compartmentalized management system, the status of asset owners is weakened and the income from the assets is continuously lost, which may lead to the problem of the quantity and scale remaining stable while the actual value decreases.

2.3.2. Problems in Value Realization of Natural Resource Products

The economic, social, and ecological values of different natural resources have their own emphases and their realizations vary in difficulty. Operational natural resource assets are usually involved as factors in production and their value can be directly reflected in the market transaction process, whereas the actual operation of storage is associated an excessive pursuit of economic value, ignoring the sustainability of resource utilization; public-welfare natural resource assets mainly provide ecological service functions and their value is difficult to realize directly through the market. Thus, the question of how to take into account ecological benefits and fully externalize their intrinsic value into economic value is the key difficulty in realizing the value of natural resource assets owned by the general population.

2.3.3. Problems in Market Establishment

The natural resource asset system is huge, and the degree of matching between the construction of the storage system and the evolution of marketization varies. To date, a mature and comprehensive market transfer mechanism has been developed for the operational management of natural resource assets such as land and minerals; however, there are still problems such as unreasonable supply plans and disorderly competition; the path to realization of public-welfare natural resource assets such as forests and wetlands is not yet clear, there is no system for accounting the value of protection and utilization, and the trading market in ecological products remains only shallowly developed, presenting a chaotic situation of scattered resource management and an unclear data base.

2.4. Planning for Protection and Utilization of Natural Resource Assets

These scattered natural resource assets need to be unified and integrated, and a clear ownership body is the basic premise for the preparation of protection and utilization planning. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the establishment of a “unified exercise, classified implementation, hierarchical agency, equal rights and responsibilities” mechanism for the ownership of natural resource assets owned by the general population. Considering the diversity of natural resources, the conservation and utilization planning of natural resource assets should adhere to the ecological concept that “mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands” comprise a community of life, and realize the change from single-factor management to full-factor and systematic governance; in a market mechanism, natural resource products are carriers for realizing the value of natural resource assets, and methods of realizing the value of ecological products of public-welfare assets should be actively explored.

3. Concepts for the Protection and Utilization of Natural Resource Assets

Based on the theory, methods, and practical experience of land acquisition and storage, this paper extends the strategies of asset protection and utilization of land acquisition and storage to other types of natural resource assets in order to construct a “one body and two wings” planning model for natural resource asset protection and utilization that covers all elements (Figure 1). The main body is the main idea used to determine the planning framework. Specifically, on the basis of analyzing the role of natural resource asset protection and utilization planning, the preparation principle and planning objectives and indicators are clarified, and the main tasks and planning core of the final planning process are clarified. The “two wings” provide the main guarantee for the implementation of asset planning, and they consist of project implementation and system design.

3.1. Role Positioning

In the modern era, natural resource management emphasizes the concept that “mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands” comprise a community of life. In accordance with the holistic and systemic nature of the ecosystem and its intrinsic laws, all elements of the natural ecology are considered in an integrated manner when carrying out overall protection, systematic restoration, and comprehensive management, enhancing the capacity of ecosystem cycles and maintaining ecological balance. Therefore, natural resources, as one of the important resource areas alongside economic, social, ecological, and environmental resources, should be incorporated into national management planning, and their planning status and level should be upgraded. Natural resource asset planning is an extension and refinement of the national development plan in the field of natural resources. It is the top-level design that determines the development direction of natural resources, guides the layout of major projects for resource development and protection, guides social investment, and improves the governance capacity of natural resource governors. Natural resource asset planning and territorial spatial planning are important tools for achieving the goal of “two unifications” of natural resources owned by the general population, and the modernization of governance systems is a common and important goal of both. The construction of territorial spatial planning systems should closely follow the reform of natural resource regulatory systems, whereas natural resource asset planning supports territorial spatial planning through the management of natural resource assets.

3.2. Compilation Principles

3.2.1. Systematicity and Integrity

Planners should adhere to the ecological concept that “mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands comprise a community of life” while systematically considering the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population; realize the transformation of natural resource assets from single-factor management to all-factor and systematic governance through the overall collection and storage of all kinds of natural resource assets; and promote the preservation and appreciation of natural resource assets owned by the general population. Planners should also highlight the overall benefits of exploitation, utilization, and protection of natural resource assets.

3.2.2. Efficiency and Fairness

The natural resource assets owned by the general population are mainly divided into public-welfare natural resource assets and operational natural resource assets according to their different socioeconomic attributes. The development, utilization, and protection of public-welfare natural resource assets require fairness, whereas the development, utilization, and protection of operational natural resource assets require efficiency. Therefore, the plan for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population must give consideration to fairness and efficiency, so that the economic, social, and ecological benefits of the development, utilization and protection of natural resource assets owned by the general population can be simultaneously improved.

3.2.3. Sustainable Development

Planning for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population requires that the relationship between the development, utilization, and protection of various single-element natural resource assets be coordinated under the conditions of protecting the environment and efficient recycling of resources, so as to coordinate these plans with the ecological environment. It is necessary not only to protect natural resource assets systematically, but also to realize the optimal allocation of various resources, improve the efficiency of resource development and utilization, and promote the value maintenance and appreciation of natural resource assets, so as to ensure the efficient utilization of natural resource assets and the sustainable development of both economy and ecology, enhance the ecological environment’s ability to support regional social and economic development, and improve the ecological sustainability of civilization.

3.2.4. Prioritizing Ecology and Green Development

The formulation of plans for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population should respect the laws of nature, adhere to the basic concept that “clear waters and lush mountains” are invaluable assets, explore ways to transform the resource advantages of “clear waters and lush mountains” into economic advantages or “gold and silver mountains” in light of local conditions, and provide support for the preservation and appreciation of natural resource assets.

3.3. Planning Indicators

3.3.1. Index System Construction

The core objective of planning for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population is to maintain and increase the value of natural resource assets. Based on the goal of maintaining and increasing the value of natural resource assets, the establishment of a target index for the protection and utilization planning of natural resource assets owned by the general population should take the perspective of the return of funds, clarifying the cost of protection and utilization and the composition of the transfer income of natural resource assets such as land, cultivated land, minerals, ocean, commercial forest, public welfare forest, grassland, and wetland in order to calculate the income derived from the protection and utilization of various assets. Among the above, the income associated with cultivated land assets consists of cultivated land rent; construction land income consists of land transfer income; mineral income consists of income from the transfer of exploration and mining rights; income from marine assets consists of income from the transfer of marine right to use; income from commercial forests consists of the income from tree trading; income from public-welfare forests is derived from the transaction of ecological products of the public-welfare forests; and wetland asset income consists of wetland ecological product trading income. By stipulating the objectives and indicators of the protection and utilization cost, transfer income, and protection and utilization income of various assets, general requirements for the preservation and appreciation of various natural resource assets can be put forward. At the same time, the specific situations of the preservation and appreciation of natural resource assets in various regions are measured during the planning period, so as to realize a guiding and constraining function within the processes of protection and utilization of natural resource assets (See

Table 1. Indicators of asset protection and utilization planning. Unit: hectare (0.000), CNY ten thousand (0.00), ten thousand CNY/hectare (0.00).

Indicators			Number	Planning Period (2021–2035)		Indicator Attribute	Remarks
				Total	Near Future (2021–2025)
Land	Cultivated land	Cultivated land storage area	1			Constraint
		Cost of cultivated land storage	2			Anticipated
		Rent of cultivated land	3			Anticipated
		Benefit from cultivated land storage	4			Anticipated
	Construction land	Construction land storage area	5			Constraint
		Construction land storage cost	6			Anticipated
		Income from construction land transfer	7			Anticipated
		Construction land storage income	8			Anticipated
Mineral		Mining storage area	9			Constraint
		Mineral area storage cost	10			Anticipated
		Income from the transfer of exploration and mining rights	11			Anticipated
		Mineral storage benefits	12			Anticipated
Ocean		Marine storage area	13			Constraint
		Ocean storage costs	14			Anticipated
		Income from the sale of the right to use the sea	15			Anticipated
		Benefits from marine storage	16			Anticipated
Forest land	Commercial forest	Commercial forest storage area	17			Constraint
		Cost of storage of commercial forest	18			Anticipated
		Tree trading income	19			Anticipated
		Profit from storage of commercial forest	20			Anticipated
	Commonwealth forest	Area under protection and utilization of public-welfare forests	21			Constraint
		Cost of storage of nonprofit forests	22			Anticipated
		Income from trading of ecological products in public-welfare forests	23			Anticipated
		Benefits from the storage of public-welfare forests	24			Anticipated
Wetland		Wetland storage area	29			Constraint
		Wetland conservation and utilization costs	30			Anticipated
		Wetland ecological products’ trading income	31			Anticipated
		Benefit from wetland storage	32			Anticipated

).

3.3.2. Horizontal and Vertical Transmission of the Indicator System

In order to prevent horizontal conflicts and vertical transmission disjunction between the planning indicator system for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population and the existing indicator system for the protection and utilization of single-element natural resource assets at different levels and with multiple resource types, which would seriously weaken the guidance of these plans, it is also necessary to further strengthen the horizontal connections and vertical transmission within the indicator system of national ownership of natural resource asset planning.

In terms of horizontal connections, the plan for natural resource assets owned by the general population is an asset protection and utilization plan covering all elements, and a systematic and comprehensive plan for coordinating the protection and utilization of land, minerals, forests, wetlands, oceans, and other single-element natural resources. Therefore, the goal and indicator system of the plan for the protection and utilization of all natural resource assets should be horizontally linked to the special plan for the protection and utilization of natural resources of each single element, and an agreement should be reached with the ecological environment and natural resource departments such as those governing land, minerals, forests, wetlands, and oceans on the overall direction and planning goals for the protection and utilization of various natural resource assets.

In terms of vertical transmission, the goals and targets of city- and county-level natural resource asset protection and utilization planning should be guided by the above-mentioned planning goals and targets, which should be implemented, refined, and supplemented to form a way of transmitting planning goals and targets from the country to the province level, and then on to the city and county levels; the goals of natural resource asset protection and utilization should be implemented level by level from top to bottom. The objectives and indicators of the city- and county-level natural resource asset protection and utilization planning not only guarantee the core position of the national top-level strategic guiding ideology, but also provide the overall direction and planning objectives of provincial natural resource asset protection and utilization plans, while at the same time facilitating horizontal comparisons between different cities and counties in the same development areas.

3.4. Main Tasks of Planning

3.4.1. Clarify the Planning Objects

Any planning process needs a clear planning object. The objects of the asset protection and utilization planning under discussion are six natural resource asset types, including land, minerals, forests, wetlands, and oceans, owned by the general population, which are mainly divided into public-welfare natural resource assets and operational natural resource assets according to their different socioeconomic attributes.

Public-welfare natural resource assets mainly provide public goods and services; this category includes public-welfare forests, grasslands, wetlands, and other resources. The storage objects of public-welfare natural resource assets should be based on spatial structure and ecological issues. Under the guidance of the spatial structure, through the construction of an ecological network, the objects of collecting and storing public-welfare assets are selected according to the landscape types and their importance in the ecological network. The ecological network connects important habitat areas through corridors. Based on the ecological network, public-welfare assets can be selected for storage, wherein the reserve can include not only public-welfare assets such as ecological resources with high ecological or environmental value, but also public-welfare assets in the form of ecological corridors and key nodes that reflect the structure and connectivity of the ecosystem, realizing a continuous increase in the number and quality of public-welfare assets with high ecological value and high ecological connectivity [43]. Based on the investigation of ecological problems, public-welfare assets with serious functional degradation and ecological problems such as serious soil erosion, land desertification, and pollution of water resources caused by human disturbance factors such as excessive logging, overgrazing, and beach reclamation are also included in the reserve. Through the development of ecosystem protection and restoration projects, the ecosystem service function is improved, and the value of the public-welfare assets is maintained and increased [44].

In the early stages, the storage of operational natural resource assets mainly focused on land, which developed from single-plot storage to overall land storage. Today, the storage of single land elements has gradually developed into the joint storage of natural resource assets, which now involves all parts of China. Taking Hubei province as an example, the building of a joint storage center has been proposed. This joint storage center would no longer govern only the single-element asset of land, but would include the five categories of natural resource asset, namely land, minerals, forests, wetlands, and oceans. The center will enable their protection and utilization by means of storage, thus maintaining and increasing the value of natural resource assets. This joint storage center would implement the unified storage of the entire area. Through unified planning, unified storage, unified development, unified support, and unified supply, it will make overall arrangements for production, living, and ecological functions, realize the integrated and systematic transformation and renewal of urban space, and fully realize the economic, ecological, social, and cultural values of operational natural resource assets.

Operational natural resource assets mainly provide market products, including construction land, cultivated land, minerals, commercial forest assets, oceans, and other assets. Specifically,

(1)

Construction land assets

① State-owned land recovered according to law; ② acquired land; ③ land acquired by exercising the right of first refusal; ④ land that has gone through the approval procedures for agricultural land conversion and expropriation and for which expropriation has been completed; ⑤ other legally acquired land. According to the transformation status of land types in land planning and the specific storage objects, there are two states and six categories.

(2)

Cultivated land assets

Cultivated land storage assets refer to land that can be converted into cultivated land through ecological restoration, mainly including grasslands, saline alkali land, sandy land, and bare land.

(3)

Mineral assets

According to the resource characteristics of the collected and stored minerals, considering the current supply and demand situation and future supply and demand trends, the objects of mineral storage can be divided into two categories: scarce minerals and common minerals.

(4)

Commercial forest assets

Commercial forests are important operational assets, which allow commodity exchange and economic benefits. Commercial forests can be classified according to different uses. According to the Main Technical Regulations on Forest Resources Planning, Design and Investigation, commercial forests mainly include timber forests, fuel forests, and economic forests.

(5)

Marine assets

The object of marine storage is the storage of land parcels with low utilization efficiency of reclamation stock.

3.4.2. Planning Convergence and Transmission

The transmission of natural resource asset planning should be strengthened layer by layer. Taking the county-level planning unit as an example, on the basis of further collection, sorting, summarizing, and analysis of the compilation results, main tasks, major projects, and important policies of the county-level natural resource asset planning, planners can further improve the natural resource asset planning system and achieve full coverage of county-level natural resource asset planning. Planners should aim to clarify the requirements for the preparation of county-level natural resource asset planning, formulate planning preparation procedures, and hold training meetings for the preparation of county-level planning, thus unifying planning ideas, concepts, technologies, specifications, and other specific planning requirements, and refining and decomposing the specific indicators and key project deployment of city-level natural resource asset planning.

In terms of important indicators, the binding indicators of the city-level natural resource asset planning are decomposed at the county level to improve the conductivity of the indicators, effectively guarantee the implementation of the indicators, and improve the effectiveness of the indicator evaluation.

In terms of major projects, good connections should be made between the deployments of major projects planned by superior and subordinate natural resource asset managers, and ensure the implementation of major projects and the effectiveness of planning and evaluation.

3.4.3. Asset Zoning and Classification Management

To achieve the goal of maintaining and increasing the value of natural resource assets, full consideration must be given to the inherent value of the land itself, which is determined by the natural attributes of the land, namely, soil, geology, vegetation, hydrology, and other natural factors [45], and also determines the appropriate mode and extent of land use. The purpose of such classification is to adapt the resource demand required by a specific land use mode to the natural resources and the environmental conditions, so as to achieve the goal of “adjusting measures to local conditions”. Therefore, when carrying out the natural resource asset planning for a region, it is necessary to first analyze and evaluate the appropriate types of land, comprehensively analyze the suitability of the current land resources for different types of land use, and then divide the appropriate areas for different types of land use and determine the dominant directions of land use in different regions, so as to provide a reliable scientific basis for decision makers in formulating a decision-making scheme for the optimal allocation of natural resource assets, overall planning, and rational utilization.

3.4.4. Asset Allocation Optimization

The optimal allocation of natural resource assets is a social process of existing use conversion or substantive evolution of land. Its essence is a comprehensive problem involving social, economic, ecological, and other comprehensive factors.

As far as the process of optimal allocation is concerned, it actually consists of a set of planned land use mode selection and layout activities based on the current situation of asset utilization, natural characteristics, and economic characteristics, applying scientific management means and advanced technical methods to achieve the established social, economic and ecological goals. The unification of asset quantitation, positioning, and sequential allocation, and the differentiation of regions is a gradual and dynamic process. It is necessary to regulate and arrange the quantity, structure, and spatial distribution of regional assets so as to achieve sustainable development of natural resources and maintain and increase the value of assets.

3.4.5. Capital Planning

The development and utilization of assets faces problems of huge project scale, large investment required, long development and construction cycles, and various coordination issues. From the perspective of the government, it is necessary to analyze the financial feasibility of the financing channels and fund balance for development and utilization, so as to judge the financial feasibility of the overall plans and implementation plans; feedback can then be sought to adjust and optimize the overall plan and the overall implementation plan for the development of new urban areas.

3.4.6. Implementation Guarantees

Promoting the implementation of major projects is the most fundamental way to promote the implementation of key objectives and tasks determined in the plan for the protection and utilization of natural resources and assets in a solid and orderly manner. During the implementation of a given project, planners should not only focus on the intersections with ecological restoration projects in territorial spatial planning and with various resource management projects, but also strengthen the top-level design, i.e., establishing and improving the institutional operational guarantee from six perspectives, including operational guarantees, policy guarantees, technical guarantees, financial guarantees, risk prevention, and control, evaluation, and supervision.

4. Core Concepts in Natural Resource Asset Protection and Utilization Planning

Due to the serious problems associated with the national ownership of natural resource asset management systems, such as the segmentation of blocks and the decentralization of departments, the management of natural resource assets is fragmented, the status of asset owners is effectively weakened, national interests are seriously damaged, and the interests of the people are not guaranteed. Therefore, it is of vital practical significance to formulate a plan for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population. The important goals of this reform are to put forward goals, routes, policies, and efficient spatial and temporal arrangements for the protection and sustainable use of natural resources and assets owned by the general population; to optimize the distribution, structure, and allocation of resources and assets; to establish an asset planning system; to promote the prioritization of protection and sustainable use of natural resources and assets; and to strive to maintain and increase the value of assets according to the characteristics of different asset types through implementation of protection by category. This will strengthen the overall protection of natural resources, promote the intensive development and utilization of natural resource assets, and promote the restoration and reasonable compensation of natural ecological spaces and systems. Planners should adhere to the principle of giving priority to protection and intensive utilization. The authors believe that joint storage of natural resource assets will become the foundation of natural resource asset protection and utilization planning. The specific process steps are as follows: completing the inventory and classification of natural resource assets, distinguishing between operational natural resource assets and public-welfare natural resource assets, fully enabling their different functions, defining the objects of storage, measuring the scale of storage, and improving the space–time layout of storage. To correctly handle the relationship between the protection and the development and utilization of resources, we should not only consider the basic role of public-welfare natural resource assets in strict resource protection and improvement of ecological functions, but also the key role of operational natural resource assets in optimizing resource allocation, improving the efficiency of resource development and utilization, and promoting high-quality development.

4.1. Operational Natural Resource Assets

Operational natural resource assets are mainly used to provide market products; additionally, some resources for public purposes, including permanent basic farmland, can also be subject to strict administrative control as special operational assets. The operational modes and management mechanisms for the storage of land, minerals, and other operational natural resource assets have undergone decades of development in China, accumulating rich practical experience, and have now been developed into a relatively mature planning system [46,47]. By drawing on the mature theories, methods and practical experience of land storage, this paper establishes a plan for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets owned by the general population, which can cover all elements, enable the unified management of natural resource assets, and realize the economic value and ecological value of natural resource assets. Due to the relatively mature storage modes of land operational natural resource assets, and the fact that land is currently the most extensive operational natural resource asset, this paper takes the storage of land assets as an example to study the core concepts in the protection and utilization planning of operational natural resource assets.

4.1.1. Operational Asset Storage Scale

Determining the scale of the storage of various natural resource assets is an important stage of the storage work, and is the basis for the follow-up implementation of various resource utilization processes. The determination of storage scale should start from the protection and utilization objectives and ontological characteristics of various resources and assets, and adopt different technical strategies and mathematical methods for prediction and determination.

Based on calculation of the demand for natural resource assets, the balance between supply and demand for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets is analyzed in combination with the analysis of asset storage potential and spatial layout. According to the use control zoning, special urban renewal planning, mineral resource planning, marine functional area planning, forest land protection and utilization planning, etc. determined in the overall land and space planning process, the scale of asset storage and the use structure are defined, and the protection and utilization of various assets are reasonably arranged.

(1)

Calculation of construction land storage scale

The scale of construction land acquisition and storage is affected by development and utilization funds, the amount of land available for development and utilization, the demand for construction land, urban planning, and other factors. Local governments can select appropriate models to determine the best land acquisition and storage volume based on the actual situation and on the calculation of construction land acquisition and storage potential and demand.

(2)

Calculation of farmland storage scale

Farmland storage mainly includes structural storage, fallow storage, and consolidation storage. For a specific region, the total amount of farmland storage in the region can be determined based on the measurement of the three types of storage scale.

(3)

Calculation of mineral storage scale

The scale of mineral land storage is determined based on the future supply and demand trends. A reasonable scale calculation method should be developed according to different development and utilization functions. Based on the prediction of mineral demand, the measurement of mineral land storage scale is divided into a shortage storage scale, strategic storage scale, and advantage storage scale [48,49].

(4)

Calculation of commercial forest storage scale

The scale of commercial forest storage can be estimated from the prediction of supply and demand, using the stepwise regression analysis prediction method. The commercial forest demand is affected by the price, consumer preference and overall market preference, consumer income level, relevant commodity prices, and the future expectations of the society. In addition, the scale of commodity forest storage will also be affected by national macro policy adjustments.

(5)

Calculation of marine storage scale

The ocean is an important space carrier for national economic development and social progress. As one of the most important and widely used resources in China, marine space development and protection is of great strategic significance for achieving sustainable economic growth, improving the global climate environment, and improving people’s well-being.

However, with the rapid development of China’s marine economy, unreasonable waste and excessive development have occurred. The development, utilization, and protection of the sea have caused problems such as an unbalanced structure and scale of development and utilization, large proportions of fishery sea use, increased pressure on the preservation of natural shorelines, insufficient scientific development and utilization of marine space, and severe damage to coastal marine ecosystems and service functions, which have seriously affected people’s daily lives and production activities. Unreasonable development and utilization pose a great threat to coastal zones and the offshore ecological environment, seriously restricting the healthy development of the marine economy and further restricting the normal development order of the national economy. In this context, the protection and utilization of marine operational assets is gradually becoming dominated by reclamation, and reclamation has gradually become an important way to expand production and living space in coastal areas.

Based on this, China has begun to explore the management of marine resource storage (reclamation and storage) for the protection and utilization of marine assets, in an attempt to integrate and activate marine resources through the unified planning, unified storage, and unified allocation of marine resources, and to achieve the optimal allocation of state-owned marine resources while maintaining and increasing their value [50,51].

According to the development and utilization demand of reclamation, and considering the utilization efficiency of reclamation stock, the scale determination method is established with the development and utilization capacity of reclamation as the limiting condition and the multifactor demand of reclamation as the driving force [52].

4.1.2. Operational Asset Storage Space Layout

Asset planning should implement a land space development and protection pattern, respect the overall regional planning layout, and reasonably define the scope of asset storage space according to the spatial development strategy and market demand orientation, so as to provide an important reference for project implementation and storage scheduling. On the basis of suitability zoning, planners should determine a reasonable indicator system according to the characteristics of assets, analyze the storage potential, and divide high-potential areas and low-potential areas, respectively corresponding to key protection and utilization areas and general protection and utilization areas.

The analysis of the development and utilization potential of construction land assets requires the establishment of an indicator system based on the principles of combining comprehensiveness and dominance, combining pertinence and comparison, and combining economic, social, and ecological benefits, and considering the location factors, infrastructure factors, and environmental factors from the perspective of planning and implementation. The development and utilization potential of cultivated land assets is determined by many indicators, including ecological, social, and economic factors. The analysis of mineral potential is based on the principles of rational layout of mine exploration and development, high efficiency of production and utilization of mineral products, high quality of environmental governance in mining areas, and high demand of the mineral market. The indicator system is constructed based on the complete process of mineral development and utilization and the “exploration and development–production and utilization–environmental governance–market consumption” system [53,54]. The storage potential of commercial forest refers to the potential forest production function, which is mainly evaluated according to the natural conditions of forest land and the forest quality, which can be used to divide the high-potential and low-potential grade areas. The evaluation system is constructed from the two aspects of forest quality and forest land quality. The analysis of reclamation potential of sea areas should be based on the principle of paying equal attention to development and protection, and long-term and comprehensive sea area utilization. The indicator system should be established from two aspects: the cost and benefit of reclamation and the impact of reclamation on marine resources. According to the weighted superposition results, the reclamation development and utilization potential should be classified into two levels: high potential and low potential.

4.1.3. Timing Arrangement of Operating Asset Storage

Reasonably arranging the storage time sequence of various natural resource assets is the premise for the scientific and orderly development of supply, utilization, and protection of various natural resource assets. The storage rules of natural resource assets should be determined according to the characteristics and utilization requirements of different resource assets, and the storage order should be clarified. For general natural resource assets, priority is usually given to those with good current quality and high development potential.

(1)

Construction land assets

In consideration of the specific actual operation of land development and utilization planning and the changes of influencing factors, planning needs to consider the urban land development and utilization plan of the past five years to determine the medium- and long-term development orientation of the city. The short-term plan should focus on operability under the combination of urban development measures and land development and utilization, and reasonably determine the scale and space of short-term land development and utilization in combination with the results of land development and utilization potential evaluation.

(2)

Cultivated land assets

The time sequence of cultivated land development reflects the priority of cultivated land development and utilization. During development, it is necessary not only to ensure the quantity and quality of cultivated land development and utilization resources, but also to select plots that are concentrated and contiguous, with regular shape and convenient location conditions. Therefore, when constructing an index system for the timing arrangement of the development and utilization of cultivated land resources, planners should not only consider the natural endowment conditions of resources, but also analyze them in combination with regional economic and social conditions, comprehensively evaluate them, and take into account the economic feasibility and the difficulty of development and implementation.

(3)

Mineral assets

According to the different objects of mineral development and utilization, the timing arrangement of mineral development and utilization can be divided into the timing of the development and utilization of scarce minerals and the timing of the development and utilization of strategic minerals [55,56]. Both require reasonable determination of the scale and layout of development and utilization in the short and long term on the basis of importance evaluation and demand analysis results.

(4)

Commodity forest assets

The quality of forest resources is the most critical factor affecting the supply of wood. Therefore, planners should consider the demands of the wood market and reasonably determine the short-term and long-term storage arrangements in combination with the results of forest quality evaluation. Once the demand has been determined, priority should be given to the collection and storage of forest land with high forest quality and high timber yield, followed by other land areas. Therefore, research is needed to evaluate forest quality. The quality evaluation of commercial forests should be concise, clear, and easy to interpret; the data should be selected according to the required standards and easy to determine, or in line with the data included in the forest survey content for forest quality evaluation. At the same time, the evaluation indicators should also be dynamically adjusted according to different training objectives.

(5)

Marine assets

For the strict control of new reclamation areas, priority should be given to the development and utilization of reclamation stock, and according to the cost and benefit evaluation of reclamation and the impact evaluation of reclamation development activities on marine resources. Priority should be given to the development and utilization of low-efficiency reclamation sea areas with low cost and high benefit, as these development activities have little impact on marine resources. Other areas can be developed and utilized in the long term.

4.2. Public-Welfare Natural Resource Assets

As important parts of the ecosystem, public-welfare natural resource assets mainly provide ecological products and services. As a unified whole, the ecosystem is closely interlinked and difficult to separate. Therefore, the protection and utilization of public-welfare natural resource assets should integrate forest, grassland, wetland, and other single-element natural resource assets for joint storage [57].

4.2.1. Public-Welfare Asset Storage Scale

The calculation of the storage scales of public-welfare natural resource assets can be divided into advantage storage and restoration storage. Of these, the goal of advantage storage is to store those public-welfare natural resource assets with good environmental quality and high ecological value, and to protect valuable public-welfare assets by delimiting natural reserves and other measures, which are mainly determined by planning objectives such as forest inventory, comprehensive coverage of grassland vegetation, wetland protection rate, etc. The specific formula is as follows:

$$P_s=S_f\times {\alpha }_f+S_g\times {\alpha }_g+S_w\times {\alpha }_w$$

(1)

where $P_s$ refers to the scale of public-welfare natural resource asset advantage storage; $S_f$ is the total land area; ${\alpha }_f$ is the forest coverage; $S_g$ is the total grassland area; ${\alpha }_g$ is the comprehensive coverage of grassland vegetation; $S_w$ is the total wetland area; and ${\alpha }_g$ is the wetland protection rate.

The goal of restoration storage is to solve the problems of shrinking area and functional degradation of public-welfare natural resources such as forests, grasslands, and wetlands. It is mainly determined according to the area of forests, grasslands, wetlands, and other ecosystems selected for protection and restoration. The specific formula is as follows:

$$P_r={\displaystyle \sum }_{i=1}^n{E}_i$$

(2)

where $P_r$ is the recovery storage scale of public-welfare natural resource assets; $E_i$ is the area determined by the ith ecosystem protection and restoration project.

4.2.2. Public-Welfare Asset Storage Space Layout

(1)

Advantage storage space layout

The space layout of the advantageous reserve of public-welfare assets can be determined by constructing an ecological network using the minimum cumulative resistance model. The specific steps are as follows: First, based on MSPA analysis, the “core area” type is used as a potential source patch, and the landscape connectivity importance of the “core area” patch is evaluated by calculating the patch connectivity importance index (dPC) to identify the ecological source. Then, the diffusion distance of local representative species in the study area is used as the distance threshold, and the resistance surface of species diffusion is constructed. Finally, based on the minimum cumulative resistance model, the minimum cost path (MCR) from the source to the target on the resistance surface of species diffusion is identified as an ecological corridor in order to build an ecological network. The specific formula is as follows:

$$PC=\frac{{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{i=1}^n{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{j=1}^n{\alpha }_i{\alpha }_j{p}_{ij}^{*}}{A_L^2},\left(0<PC\le 1\right)$$

(3)

$$dP{C}_k=100\times \frac{PC-P{C}_{remove,k}}{PC}$$

(4)

$$MCR=fmin{\displaystyle \sum }_{j=n}^{i=m}\left(D_{ij}\times R_i\right)$$

(5)

where PC is the connectivity index; n is the total number of patches; ${\alpha }_i$ and ${\alpha }_j$ are the area of patches i and j; $A_L$ is the total landscape area; $p_{ij}^{*}$ is the maximum probability of species spreading between patches i and j; $dP{C}_k$ represents the change rate of connectivity index after removing the patch k; MCR is the minimum cumulative resistance value; f is a function reflecting the positive correlation between the minimum cumulative resistance and $D_{ij}$ and $R_i$; $D_{ij}$ is the spatial distance of species from source j to landscape unit I; and $R_i$ is the resistance of landscape unit i to species dispersal.

(2)

Restoration storage space layout

The layout of public-welfare assets restoration storage space includes forest and grassland ecological restoration areas, soil erosion control areas, and water resource comprehensive management areas. The identification of forest and grassland ecological restoration areas is carried out by calculating the vegetation cover of the study area at two separate time points; these are spatially superimposed to obtain the vegetation cover degradation area, allowing extraction of the forest and grassland ecological restoration space, respectively. The identification of soil erosion control area involves water and soil loss evaluation through soil loss equations; comprehensive study of the regional terrain, land type, vegetation, soil, and hydrological information; measurement of the amount of soil loss, determination of the classification of soil erosion degree, and extraction of the soil erosion intensity and extreme-intensity erosion area as the water and soil loss prevention area. The specific formula is as follows:

$$A=R\times K\times S\times L\times C\times P$$

(6)

where A is the annual soil erosion; R is the rainfall erosivity factor; K is the soil erodibility factor; S is the slope factor; L is the slope length factor; C is the vegetation cover management factor; and P is the factor of water and soil conservation measures.

The identification of a water resource comprehensive treatment area is based on the distribution of major drinking water source protection areas within the study region; areas with large population densities and significant domestic sewage and production sewage discharge pose a threat to water resource security in water resource comprehensive treatment areas.

4.2.3. Timing of Storage of Public-Welfare Assets

(1)

Advantage storage timing arrangement

The timing of the storage of public-welfare assets is based on the evaluation of patch centrality and ecological corridor importance in the ecological network, and the public-welfare assets with high landscape importance in the ecological network are preferentially stored. The patch centrality reflects the relationship between the number of shortest paths through all nodes and the number of shortest paths between all connected nodes of the entire network. The specific formula is as follows:

$$B{C}_k={\displaystyle \sum }_i^n{\displaystyle \sum }_j^n\frac{g_{ij}\left(k\right)}{g_{ij}}$$

(7)

where $B{C}_k$ is the centrality of patch k; n is the total number of patches; and $g_{ij}$ is the sum of the shortest paths between each group of possible connected patches in the whole landscape, where i, j ≠ k.

The importance of an ecological corridor is quantified by the gravity model. The greater the interaction intensity, the smaller the resistance of species diffusion between source areas, and the more important the corridor that directly connects them. The specific formula is as follows:

$$G_{ij}=\frac{N_i{N}_j}{D_{ij}^2}=\frac{\left[\frac{1}{P_i}\times \ln \left(S_i\right)\right]\left[\frac{1}{P_j}\times \ln \left(S_j\right)\right]}{{\left(\frac{L_{ij}}{L_{max}}\right)}^2}=\frac{L_{max}^2\ln \left(S_i{S}_j\right)}{L_{ij}^2{P}_i{P}_j}$$

(8)

where $G_{ij}$ is the interaction force between patches i and j; $N_i$ and $N_j$ are the weight values of patches i and j; $D_{ij}^2$ is the corridor resistance value between patches i and j; $P_i$ and $P_j$ are the resistance values of plaque i and j; $S_i$ and $S_j$ are the area of patches i and j; $L_{ij}$ is the cumulative resistance value of the corridor between i and j; and $L_{max}$ is the maximum resistance value of corridor in study area.

(2)

Restoration storage timing arrangement

Based on the ecological vulnerability evaluation, the public-welfare asset restoration reserve timing arrangement integrates the ecological sensitivity, ecological resilience, and ecological pressure of the recovery and storage objects; determines the classification of ecological sensitivity; and prioritizes the reservation of public-welfare assets with higher ecological vulnerability. The ecological vulnerability evaluation index system is shown in Figure 2.

5. Conclusions

As China’s natural resource management system continues to improve, i.e., as the stock and flow of natural resource assets and the rights holders of those assets become clear, it will be of utmost importance to further regulate and guide the entire system natural resource asset rights and interests through natural resource asset planning. However, there is still a lack of important reference information in this field. Therefore, this paper presents some thoughts on the protection and utilization planning of natural assets. This paper argues that land storage planning plays an important role in optimizing the allocation of land assets and maintaining and increasing the value of land assets, and can offer clarity to the protection and utilization planning of natural assets. First, in terms of applicability, other natural resource asset planners can learn from the experience gathered through land storage, promote the realization of asset value through market mechanisms, and maintain and increase the value of assets through joint storage. Secondly, in terms of particularity, due to the diversity and distribution difference of natural resource assets, the status quo of asset protection and utilization is different, the degree of marketization of public-welfare assets is low, and there is only a single path to the realization of value. It is clear that asset planning should focus not only on the technical system of planning, but also on the establishment of relevant systems and mechanisms. Therefore, this paper establishes the planning concept of “one body and two wings” for the protection and utilization of natural resource assets. The main body includes asset planning positioning, principles, objectives, and the main tasks of the planning. The two wings represent the two aspects of project engineering and system design, which provide the guarantee for the implementation and effectiveness of the planning. As China’s natural resource management system continues to improve, i.e., as the stock and flow of natural resource assets and the rights holders of the assets become clear, it will be of utmost importance to further regulate and guide the entire system of natural resource asset rights and interests through natural resource asset planning.