River basins are a complex geospatial system integrating water security, water environment security, food security, ecological security, and economic and social development. In order to promote the construction of a new development pattern based on the path of coordination and high-quality governance of human activity space in river basins, we hereby invite ten experts in the research field of the river basins coordination and high-quality development to conduct interviews. The interview mainly focuses on three perspectives: global regulation and regional regulation, evolvement rule and coordination mode, practice mechanism and governance paradigm. It revolves three main lines: utilization of natural resources and environmental protection in river basins, coordinated development of human-earth relationship and spatial governance path in river basins, and green transformation of the industry and ecological services. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Systematic engineering construction of resource allocation and pollution remediation in the whole scale river basins. From the perspective of the whole river basins, the efficient utilization and allocation system of water resources should focus on "reducing expenditure" and be supported by "open source". This should further optimize and enhance the river basin water resources allocation system from both engineering and non-engineering perspectives, integrating deeply into the development concept of innovation, coordination, green practices, openness, and sharing. The treatment and restoration project of river basin non-point source pollution system should focus on three aspects: improving the capacity of source monitoring and load estimation, strengthening the systematic design of treatment and restoration, and improving the collaborative management mechanism. (2) The evolution of human-earth relationship in river basins, the high-quality management of human activity space and the coordinated development of human-earth system. The evolution of river basin human-earth relationship has experienced the long time series and multi-scale local adaptation of urban and rural systems to environmental changes and cultural responses, showing typical characteristics of dynamic adaptation, multi-scale spatial correlation and historical dependence. The governance of human activity space in river basins should focus on resource factors, ecological environment protection, multi-scale and multi-dimensional linkage, and overall and specific aspects, and jointly promoting the governance of human activity space from fragmentation to integration and coordination. To promote the coordinated development of the river basin human-earth system, it is necessary to explore the interaction mechanism and influencing factors of the elements from a system thinking perspective, and to promote the system to form a rational element combination, efficient organizational structure and multi-function coordinated coupling state. This will achieve economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental protection in unity. (3) The green intensive transformation of agricultural production in river basins and the management mode of ecological resources. River basin ecosystem governance is based on the optimization of harmonious coexistence between human and nature. On the one hand, starting from the practice of pollution prevention and control, the transformation of agricultural production should adhere to the road of reducing agricultural chemical intensity and enhancing efficient resource utilization. Optimizing the layout of the cultivated land system and promoting the transformation of the cultivated land system into an innovation-intensive type can better support and serve the high-quality development of agriculture. On the other hand, the concept of river basin ecological governance has transitioned from focusing solely on ecology to emphasizing governance, where the development of systems like river chief system and eco-compensation plays a crucial role in the current stage of river basin governance. Nonetheless, the current implementation of eco-compensation in the river basins lacks a systematic framework, and a comprehensive protection pattern has not yet been formed for upstream and downstream areas, main stems, tributaries, rivers, and lakes. Moving forward, mechanism construction should align with the principles of ecological precedence and green, low-carbon development. It should establish a comprehensive roadmap and implementation strategy for eco-compensation from various angles, create diversified eco-compensation financing models, and clarify the beneficiaries, rights and responsibilities of eco-compensation and the benefit return model. In a nutshell, the viewpoints of the interview can provide theoretical reference and decision-making reference for ecological civilization construction, regional coordinated development and green development in the New Era.

Since the New Era began, China has further promoted the reform of the property rights for natural resources. This round of reform is a systematic innovation, including values, governances and mechanisms, policies, and management models, made on the Chinese path to modernization road of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Ten experts and scholars from disciplines such as management, economics, resource science, sociology, geography, and the practical field of natural resource management explored the progress and theoretical significance of the reform. They discussed the background, problems, guidance, mechanism, policies, modes, and inspiration. Specifically, the reform of property rights for natural resource assets has significantly promoted institutional innovation in ecological civilization construction since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012. It aims to address the urgent need for sound institutional mechanisms for state-owned natural resources, including those between the central and local governments and between the government and the market. The value orientation of this round of reform is to promote the transformation of the single-factor values of natural resources into the overall values of the ecosystem. Currently, the country is optimizing the relationship between the central and local governments by promoting the pilot of the principal-agent mechanism, and clarifying the relationship between the government and the market by enhancing the role of the market. The 20th CPC Central Committee's Third Plenary Session further emphasized "improving the property rights system and management framework for natural resources", outlining the requirements and direction for reform. The reform belongs to the innovation of socialist public ownership, which has the significance of building China's independent knowledge and can also make new contributions to enriching property rights theory.