Inner Mongolia's GEP first released: nearly 4.48 trillion yuan in 2019

The gross ecosystem product (GEP) of Inner Mongolia was nearly 4.48 trillion yuan ($656.19 billion) in 2019, according to a news conference held by local government in Beijing on Sept 25.

GEP is a measure that summarizes the value of the contributions of nature to economic activity. GEP refers to the total value of direct and indirect use of ecosystem goods and services, including the values of provision, regulation services and ecological culture services.

According to the released report, the regulation service value, 3.37 trillion yuan, was the largest component of the region’s 2019 GEP, accounting for 75.35 percent, while culture services value and provision value account for 17.67 percent and 6.98 percent respectively.

Ouyang Zhiyun, director of the Research Center for Eco-Environment Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that Inner Mongolia’s GEP was 2.6 times its GDP in 2019, which shows that its ecological function is far greater than its production function.

The report also shows that Inner Mongolia’s GEP rose 541.01 billion yuan from 2015 to 2019, an increase of 13.75 percent.

The double growth of GEP and GDP reflects local coordinated development of economic and social growth and environmental protection.

It was the first comprehensive and systematic study of Inner Mongolia’s ecological value, and will play an important role in creating an ecological environmental protection system and better pursuing high-quality ecological development.