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)