East China's Fujian Province is tightening up protective measures, aiming to keep its top rank in the nation for environmental quality.

The provincial government has moved to create natural reserves and ecological forests, prevent soil erosion and improve mining operations, said Li Zaiming, director-general of the Fujian Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau.

Li said, in the first four months of this year, the province kept a good pace in environmental protection.

According to statistics issued by China Environmental Monitoring Office, in 2003 Fujian Province ranked first in the nation in the comprehensive environment quality indices.

Last year, the 12 main water systems in the province remained in good quality, much better than the nation's seven major water systems and systems in neighboring provinces.

Also 82.6 percent of the 23 cities in Fujian reached or exceeded "good" for air quality, much higher than the average 41.7 percent in the country. Xiamen, located in the southeast of the province, had the best air quality with total 140 days at the "excellent" level.

With mountains in its northwest and the East China Sea in southeast, Fujian has a fairly integrated ecological system.

(China Daily May 10, 2004)