The dynamic adjusted system of sea use fees: An empirical research on the sea use management in Zhejiang province

Abstract

To prevent excessive exploitation of sea resources by developers, countries around the world have established systems for managing sea use. The system of sea use fees in China is continually improving, but it cannot reflect the full value of marine natural resources. Therefore, an optimization mechanism for dynamic adjustment which considered the value of marine natural resources and the adjustment coefficient of sea area fees was constructed in the study. This study explored the difference between marine resources zoning and the dynamic adjustment standard of sea use fees collection and took Zhejiang province as an example. The results showed that the comprehensive scores of coastal marine resources were generally higher than those of the open sea in Zhejiang province. Furthermore, the comprehensive scores of important ecological areas such as bays and islands were higher than those of other marine areas, and the comprehensive score of Ningbo sea area was significantly higher than those of other sea areas. On the basis, there are six classes of the adjustment range of the sea use fees standard were divided in Zhejiang province in the study. The overall increase of fee was 3.9–8.0 %. The results of study can assist decision-making by evaluating the value of marine resources and the adjustment of sea area usage royalties, which will help to improve the efficiency of sea area management.