"I hope that the "two sessions" will continue to advocate environmental protection awareness and speed up efforts in ecological conservation," said Zhang Jinwen, a fisherman at the Taihu Lake in eastern Jiangsu Province. An algae outbreak last summer cut water supply for more than two million residents of nearby Wuxi City for days.

Zhang said he had felt the worsening ecology of the lake in the past few years as he could fish less and less in the freshwater lake.

"Residents near the lake have showed support for the closure of chemical companies, the major source of pollution, because this concerns the livelihood of our offspring," he said.

Different from Zhang, Ma Yongsheng, a villager of southwestern mountainous Yunnan Province, said he hoped the country would provide them more compensations as their crops had been often destroyed by increasing wild animals such as black bears and monkeys in the region.

The hunting ban a few years ago has led to a rise of wildlife numbers, he said.

For urban environment, a volunteer named Zhang Baozhong for the August Beijing Olympics said he hoped the central government can prompt big cities to pass laws to prevent noise pollution.

(China Daily March 3, 2008)