"The fund for environmental protection should be increased by at least 10 to 15 percent each year," said Miao Guangzhong, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau.

He also said the local environmental protection industry was not developing to a satisfactory extent.

The industry, dubbed one of the most promising in western China by local media, has only showed marginal growth in the last five years due to capital shortages.

"We want to introduce cutting-edge technology into the environmental protection industry here," said Miao.

He also called for greater awareness of the need to protect the environment. "A number of local leaders are ignorant of the environment laws."

One unpleasant illustration of this is the destruction of a forest of 2000 pine trees, which was bulldozed illegally by a local brickmaker in the province's Huxian County.

Xie Jinfu, manager of the brickworks, said he thought it was "reasonable" to wipe out a few plants to get the soil, which they needed for their bricks. Xie and his brickworks are under investigation.

"Statistics indicate the environment in Shaanxi is deteriorating," said Zhao Baoguang, a statistician with the Shaanxi Provincial Statistics Bureau.

The provincial government has decided to cover 56 percent of the province with forest and pasture by the end of 2005.

The provincial government has hammered out a plan to inject 1.6 billion yuan (US$192 million) into environmental protection during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), said Governor Cheng Andong.

(China Daily 02/19/2001)