China is drafting law on protected areas of nature reserves and to submit to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, in 2006, said an official Tuesday.

It is crucial to strengthen and improve the institution for areas of nature reserves, said Mao Rubai, director with the Environment and Resource Protection Committee of NPC, at the on-going International Workshop on Cooperative Management of Nature Reserves.

Currently a host of problems exist with the legal status of Chinese nature reserves. Last year, the NPC Standing Committee designated the committee to draft the law on nature reserves.

Currently, the land designated as a nature reserve can not be used in any other way, acknowledged Prof. Li Xiaoyun from the College of Humanities and Development (COHD), China Agricultural University.

However, he added, abundant land and forest resources in the country's nature reserves are owned collectively by the local communities, whose livelihoods subsist on the resources. Lining these villages into the nature reserves will lead to either the difficulty in implementing the regulation on nature reserves or undermine the villagers' rights and interests.

Mao Rubai noted that nature reserves should be reconciled with the development of surrounding communities.

To fully understand the rights and interests of surrounding communities and to have the community participate in the management process of protecting nature reserves, the core guideline of co-management advocated by the COHD and WWF joint research project, will be essential references in the legislation on nature reserves law, Mao said.

By the end of 2003, 1,999 nature reserves of varying types and levels have been established in China, with a combined area of some 1.44 million square kilometers.

(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2004)