East China's Fujian province is closing quarries and banning tree cutting to protect the UNESCO world heritage status of its Wuyi Mountains.

Since 1999, when Mount Wuyi was accepted as a cultural and natural heritage protection site by the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Wuyi municipal government has shifted its focus on industrial and tourism development to environmental protection.

The local government has recently put forward a scientific management project to eliminate primitive ways of living in the mountain areas and build road networks winding the scenic spot with scientific layouts.

The newly planned road networks are intended to separate tourist areas from non-tourist areas, where cars and buses park. Then tourists will travel by electrically operated vehicles, which do little harm to environment.

The local government has also made it clear that residents in the area replace wood fuel with such clean energies as solar energy and marsh gas.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2001)