The five-year development plan for north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has included a
Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) as a part of its
program, the first development program in the country to do so, a
senior environmental official said in Beijing on Wednesday.
"This is the first time that an SEIA has formed part a
province's economic and social development program," said Pan Yue,
deputy director of the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA).
"The practice will pave the way for the country to combat
environmental degradation at the source," he said.
The environmental assessment mechanism attempts to predict and
assess the environmental impact of economic policies and programs
before they are implemented.
China is facing severe environmental degradation, which many
blame on the lack of environmental assessments when development
programs are being drafted.
Inner Mongolia has suffered environmental deterioration in
recent years due to overzealous industrial development, intensive
farming and overgrazing.
Pan said Inner Mongolia's new five-year development program had
adopted most of the proposals put forward in the SEIA report that
was prepared by the SEPA and regional environment departments.
The proposals try to balance environmental protection with
economic growth with the creation of five major ecological regions
and by cutting coal production from 500 million to 400 million
tons.
Inner Mongolia, which accounts for one-eighth of China's
landmass, is rich in mineral resources and is an ecologically
sensitive area. It also serves an important function as a barrier
preventing sandstorms from reaching Beijing and other parts of
China.
(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2006)