Gansu officials scolded over nature reserve damage

Local officials have been ordered to shut down illegal development projects encroaching on a nature reserve in northwest China's Gansu Province and punish those responsible.

"Prominent" mining activities, construction of hydropower plants, unapproved tourist facilities, and herding have been found in and around the Qilian Mountains, said Bo Chengshou, a senior official with the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Citing satellite data, the ministry noted that these projects "have already influenced the environment," including by damaging grassland.

Officials with the government of Zhangye, the city in whose jurisdiction the reserve lies, and with the provincial forestry department and the reserve's management bureau were grilled in a Beijing meeting with their superiors from the ministry and the State Forestry Administration on Monday.

They were ordered to map out a "corrective plan" to clear all illegal development and construction projects.

The department involved "should be aware of the need to protect the environment... and strengthen management and implementation of various policies for the reserve," Beijing officials were quoted as saying in a statement after the talk.