China should put in place more forcible and effective measures to stop the unrestrained and ill-planned construction of golf courses, as it is under growing pressure to defend its dwindling arable land to maintain national grain security.

The construction of golf courses has accelerated in China in recent years, thanks to the game being widely seen as symbol of wealth and status, and they are eating into its arable land which is far below the world's per capita average.

According to a recent People's Daily article, the number of golf courses in the country has increased to 600 from 170 in 2004, the year the central government imposed a ban on new constructions on arable land in a move to protect farmland and conserve water in the world's most populous country. Moreover, only 10 of the 600 golf courses received proper approval and licenses from relevant State departments.

The "golf" frenzy has come amid the intensive promulgation by State departments of a series of documents banning the use of land for golf courses following the State Council order in 2004. However, the popularity of "golf" is unlikely to diminish in China thanks to the swelling ranks of the middle class.

Apart from big cities, some underdeveloped areas have also caught the epidemic. In Lingshui, a State-level impoverished county in Hainan province, a total of nine golf courses had reportedly been completed or were under way in 2010.

Most of these golf courses masqueraded as "forest parks", "green belts" or "tourism projects" while omitting the word "golf" in order to overcome policy restrictions.

The government should conduct strict reviews of the nation's 590 unapproved golf courses and close down those that fail to meet the required environmental and water conservation standards.

As a fast-growing economy, China should have a proportionate number of golf courses, but their construction should be well planned and kept within a certain scale to avoid overcapacity.

China has to feed a fifth of the world's population with only 7 percent of the world's arable land.

Instead of imposing a complete ban on the construction of new golf courses, which has proven futile and resulted in their secretive and unregulated development in some regions, China should consider establishing a strict examination and approval procedure for their construction in well-chosen locations, including conducting assessments of their potential economic, environmental and ecological effects.

At the same time, intensified public scrutiny and a severe punitive mechanism should be put in place to punish those who give the green light to the construction of ill-conceived golf courses.

(China Daily 06/23/2011 page10)