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China's environmental protection authority will designate 120 "model ecological regions" in the next three years to set precedents for balancing economic growth and ecological conservation amid the country's rapid industrialization.

The model regions will be chosen from four or five Chinese provinces, as well as 300 to 400 middle-sized cities and counties, which are carrying out their specific plans to develop an environmentally-friendly economy by 2005.

An eco-friendly region must abandon traditional ways of economic development that come at a cost of environmental pollution and the destruction of the ecosystem, explained He Jun, an official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

Such a district should rationally tap its natural resources and constantly improve its environment to ensure its social and economic development was sustainable, he said.

The SEPA has been promoting the eco-friendly region concept in China since 1995. The process of setting up these regions is underway in more than 300 cities and counties.

Four provinces -- Hainan and Fujian in the south, and Jilin and Heilongjiang in the northeast -- have also drawn up plans to turn themselves into "ecological provinces."

Fujian, for example, announced last August it would invest 71.6 billion yuan (8.63 billion US dollars) in 10-year projects to build an "ecological province."

It will consider the ecological impact when making economic decisions, and will encourage the development of environment-friendly farming and industry, and eco-tourism.

The benefits and huge potential from such efforts were already obvious in some pilot areas, He Jun said, citing how farmers in some poor counties had successfully risen above poverty by growing organic crops which were increasingly popular in well-off urban areas.

He said this concept would eventually spread to all 31 Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions because the government ranked environmental conservation among its top priorities for sustainable development in the country.

China's environment had paid a high price in the past due to backward methods of development, which consumed too much energy while producing excessive pollution, he said.