“3, 2, 1—sold!” Recently, with the fall of the electronic gavel on the Lishui Ecological Product Trading Platform, the 25-year development and management rights for the river and lake ecological products of the Xiao' an River watershed in Liandu District were successfully transferred for 706 million yuan.

This seemingly ordinary “resource transaction” represents a groundbreaking exploration by Lishui in realizing the value of watershed ecological products. By revitalizing water and shoreline resources through market-oriented methods, it explores a sustainable development cycle of “protection-development-reinvestment”, providing a replicable “Liandu Model” for the province and the entire nation.

The origin of this transaction dates back to September last year. At that time, the Provincial Department of Water Resources issued the “Implementation Plan for Reforming the Value Realization Mechanism of Water Ecological Products” (Document No. 5 (2024) of the Zhejiang Provincial Water Affairs Department), explicitly designating the Xiao' an River watershed in Liandu District as a pilot for watershed unit reform. Upon hearing the news, Wang Genlong, Director of the River Management Office of the Liandu District Water Resources Bureau, realized: “This isn't a simple resource transfer; it’s a major test of how ‘lucid waters and lush mountains’ can be translated into monetary value.”

In November 2024, a research team led by experts from the Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics and Estuary entered the Xiao' an River watershed. Drones skimmed over the water surface, remote sensing images covered the entire area, and the research team conducted village surveys, household visits, and shoreline inspections. In just one month, they thoroughly assessed the “assets” of the watershed, including water resources, shoreline resources, water conservancy project assets, water culture resources, and water-front industries.

“We were essentially ‘registering’ the Xiao' an River, clearly marking the ecological functions of every river bend and the development potential of every shoreline section,” said Wang Genlong, who participated in the survey. The final “Xiao' an River Watershed Water and Shoreline Resource Asset Survey Report” provided a solid data foundation for subsequent development and protection.

With resources identified, how could they avoid the management pitfalls of “chaos upon deregulation, stagnation upon control”? Liandu District’s answer was: use maps as the guide. Based on national spatial planning, the “Three Zones and Three Lines”, and other relevant laws and regulations, Liandu District compiled the “Xiao' an River Watershed Water and Shoreline Protection and Utilization Plan”. The 78-kilometer shoreline was divided into protection zones (7.0%), retention zones (61.7%), and controlled utilization zones (31.3%), clearly specifying “areas absolutely off-limits”, “areas suitable for moderate development”, and “ecological standards required for development”. “For example, this waterfront landscape section is designated as an ‘ecological leisure zone’ in the plan, permitting only low-impact cultural and tourism projects in the future,” explained Xie Qin, Party member and Chief Engineer of the Liandu District Water Resources Bureau, pointing to the planning map.

How were the river and lake ecological products “priced”? Based on the resource characteristics of the Xiao' an River watershed, Liandu District developed a practical accounting system through market research, cost accounting, ecological benefit assessment, and other multidimensional calculations. This system includes 3 major categories (material supply, regulation services, cultural economy), 7 functions (water resource supply, water security, water landscape, etc.), and 17 indicators.

Calculations showed that the annual value of water ecological products in key areas of the Xiao' an River watershed is approximately 792 million yuan, of which the annual value of ecotourism and water conservancy education products ready for immediate transaction amounts to 51.248 million yuan. Wang Genlong, who participated in the accounting, stated that this turned “invisible ecological value” into “visible bargaining chips”.

To standardize the value conversion process for water ecological products, Liandu District issued the “River and Lake Ecological Product Transaction Management Measures (Trial)” and the “Water and Shoreline Space Protection and Utilization Management Measures (Trial)”. These documents clarify the entire process management mechanism, from “product cultivation—value accounting—asset assessment—product transaction—revenue reinvestment”. They provide clear answers to questions such as which projects can be traded, how revenue is distributed, and who bears ecological protection responsibilities. “For instance, 30% of the revenue must be used for watershed ecological restoration, 50% for public initiatives in surrounding village collectives, and 20% for subsequent industrial operations,” explained Xie Qin, flipping through the documents. Only with clear institutional boundaries can enterprises invest with confidence and villagers benefit long-term.

Last year, Liandu District invested 150 million yuan to create a comprehensive project along the Xiao' an River Happy Rivers and Lakes watershed, featuring “ecological corridors + cultural tourism nodes + smart management”, transforming the Xiao' an River from an “ecological resource” into “assets that enrich the people”.

“This benefits from the ‘BOT Model’ (Build-Operate-Transfer), where the transferee integrates fragmented resources within the watershed, implementing unified construction, operation, and management. This achieves an organic combination of governance protection, operation maintenance, and development management, innovating a high-quality development model for water-front industries with the watershed as the unit,” said Luo Jun, Director of the Water Resources and Operation Management Office of the Municipal Water Resources Bureau.

“The 706 million yuan is not the end, but the beginning,” said a relevant official from the Municipal Water Resources Bureau. The success of the Xiao' an River pilot marks a critical step forward for Lishui’s value realization mechanism for ecological products based on watershed units. The Municipal Water Resources Bureau has already established cooperation with universities and financial institutions, planning to replicate this transaction experience in other watersheds, such as tributaries of the Ou River, and explore tailored transformation paths “specific to each river”.