Lhasa: Tibet has implemented strict environmental protection policies making it so in no projects can be approved unless they pass an environmental assessment, said Zhang Yongze, director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Environment Protection on Saturday.
If the economic development project negatively affects the environment, the government will certainly not approve it even if Tibet may lose economic profits, Zhang told reporters at the Lalu wetland reserve, north of Lhasa.
"We will say no to any environment-damaging project even if it yields gold," he said echoing a promise made earlier by Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government.
Zhang explained that the environmental protection measures in Tibet are more comprehensive and stricter than those in other areas of China. Tibet has frozen the mining of gold dust since January 1, 2006 and also banned the exploitation of iron sand in January 1, 2008. In 2007, Tibet became the first region in China to standardize the exploration of mineral resources. A company must have the environmental protection plan and get the certificate before starting the exploitation.
One environmental improvement tactic has been to build a wetland reserve. Zhang said that over 100 million yuan has been invested to protect the wetland since 1999.
Zhang says the biggest environmental challenge, in his view, comes from global climate change. "It's an international issue that we have to solve together" he said. |