More than a third of China's national nature reserves are
sacrificing the environment for profit, a state environmental
official said Friday.
A nationwide inspection of 226 state-level reserves found 82
were illegally engaged in tourism, mining and construction
projects, said Wu Xiaoqing, deputy director of the State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Twenty-five nature reserves had seen a rise in illegal tourism
activities, he said.
Local governments lacked awareness of environmental protection
in nature reserves, resulting in unrestrained exploitation of
mineral resources, transport construction, hydro-power and forestry
projects and unplanned development of the tourism industry,
according to the SEPA.
Wu blamed loopholes in ecological protection laws and poor
supervision and inspection by authorities.
He urged local governments to plan for ecological tourism and
establish an evaluation system on the impact of tourism on reserve
environments.
"The approval of construction projects and design of routes must
be assessed so that pollution and destruction of the ecological
system can be avoided," he told the Legal Daily.
Specific laws on ecological tourism should be stipulated to
provide a legal basis for the supervision and management on natural
reserves, said the official, adding that the contents and forms of
ecological tourism needs to be regulated as well.
(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2006)