Ecological conservation efforts bear fruits

Fujian also makes great efforts to combat pollution.

In the past year, Fujian fully promoted the "river chief" mechanism across the province, which sees officials at each level of government appointed to take charge of the water sources in their area.

So far, roughly 5,000 officials have been appointed as "river chiefs" responsible for water quality management,Fujian Daily reported on Jan 16, citing the statistics from local authorities.

In Anxi, a county-level city in Fujian, which is widely known for producing Tianguanyin, a variety of Oolong tea, a "mountain chief" policy, similar to that of "river chiefs", has been promoted from January after a pilot project in the county proved valid in tackling problems like water and soil erosion due to industrial pollution and excessive reclamation.

More than 120 clean energy projects were established in the province while 1,500 polluting factories were urged to relocate or phased out in 2017.

In the coming year, the province plans to step up the efforts to comprehensively promote the ecological civilization development and build up a sound, green, low carbon and sustainable economic development system, pledges the report.

Fujian was officially designated as a national ecological conservation pilot zone in 2016, the first one in the country.