The five members called for the simplification of the approval process for paleontical fossil research

year, our proposal to continue to focus on fossil excavation and the management of the entry and exit of fossil specimens was jointly put forward by five CPPCC members in the field of paleontology research,
the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Recently, Wang Yuanqing, a member
The Chinese People'
Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a researcher at the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in China, told Science and Technology Daily.
is a window into our understanding of life and the history of the Earth, and is the most valuable material for exploring the future direction of mankind and the planet. By studying fossils, scientists can gradually understand the form, structure and type of life in the past, can infer the process of biological origin, evolution and development over the past hundreds of millions of years, and can restore the ecological environment of the earth at all stages of the long geological history period.
in order to protect paleontical fossil resources and promote scientific research and rational utilization, the
Regulations on the Protection of Paleontical Fossils (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) were issued in 2010. Subsequently, the relevant departments have formulated the "Regulations on the Protection of Paleontical Fossils" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Measures"). "Although the Regulations and the Implementation Measures play an important role in the protection of fossil resources, their role in promoting scientific research and rational use is less obvious and sometimes feels a degree of constraint on normal scientific research." Wang Yuanqing said.
Jinnan, a professor at the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
and the School of Geosciences of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) who is one of the co-sponsors, agrees. He said that from the point of view of "strict governance", the prohibition of all commercial activities related to fossils has received good results, but the Regulations and the Implementation Measures of the fossil excavation approval procedures are more cumbersome, involving a large number of management departments, excavation applications alone cost researchers a lot of energy, and more importantly, some provisions do not conform to the laws of scientific research, often leading to researchers missed the best field working hours, or even unable to work that year.
same time, in Wang Yuanqing's view, the regulations and approval methods for the entry and exit of fossil specimens are also different from the international practice, to a certain extent, affecting normal international cooperation and academic exchanges.
The approval process for the entry and exit of fossil specimens as stipulated in the Regulations and the Measures of Implementation is cumbersome, and there is no distinction between the entry and exit of scientific research specimens and the entry and exit of exhibition specimens, which is not conducive to management and is contrary to the basic laws of paleontological research. Wang Yuanqing said that at present to carry fossil specimens out of the country, need to report plans in advance, go out and then specifically declare, and then ask experts to review, generally 30 days, time-consuming and labor-consuming. If you temporarily want to take a specimen abroad for comparison, generally can not operate.
, the
to speed up the preliminary study of the amendments to the Ordinance and to start the revision of the Ordinance as soon as possible. "We propose to simplify the approval process for field investigation and fossil excavation by scientific research institutions, to change the current system of single excavation approval to the record system, to remove restrictions on general paleontological surveys and sporadic specimen collection by state-owned scientific research and teaching institutions, and to support scientific research and teaching institutions with national tasks to carry out normal scientific research and other research work." Tong Jinnan said.
" for the management of fossil specimens into and out of the country, we also propose to simplify the scientific research fossil specimens into and out of the approval process. Wang Yuanqing said that state-owned scientific research and teaching institutions that have approved and met the conditions are allowed to independently approve the entry and exit of fossil specimens of their units; Of course, it is also necessary to formulate appropriate penalties for units and individuals who violate the relevant provisions. Wang Yuanqing stressed.