Seven ecological districts have been set up in Tibet in an effort to establish an ecological safety guarantee system and provide scientific grounds for reasonable utilization and use of the area's natural resources.

In cooperation with Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Tibet's environmental protection administration and development office jointly worked out the "Tibet Autonomous Region Ecological Function Divisions," which have been approved for implementation by the regional government, Tibet Business Daily reported on Monday.

The "Ecological Function Divisions" stipulate each district's dominant ecological service function, environmental sensitivities, major difficulties and environmental protection goals. In addition, based on all of these factors, specific economic layout, direction of development and environmental protection measures have been proposed for each ecological district.

In total there are seven ecological districts, 17 sub-ecological areas and 76 ecological function sectors. The seven districts are: southeastern Tibet mountainous tropical rainforest/seasonal forest; eastern Tibet mountain and valley temperate and semi-moist evergreen broadleaf/dark coniferous forest ecological district; Nujiang River source plateau sub-frigid and semi-moist meadow; southern Tibet temperate and semi-drought meadows; Changtang plateau sub-frigid and semi-drought prairie; Kunlun plateau frigid and drought desert prairie; and Ali mountainous temperate and drought desert ecological district.

According to the regional environmental protection administration, the divisions offer a basis for the establishment of open economic, limited development and non-exploitation zones in Tibet.

The divisions also provide scientific grounds for drawing up a regional ecological and environmental protection and construction plan.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, August 27, 2006)