Uninhabited islands off east China's Zhejiang Province are officially off limits to development, until further notice.

Government authorities have suspended leasing and development approvals to protect the natural environment of thousands of islands.

The decision came in a recent notice issued by the Zhejiang provincial oceanic and fisheries bureau, the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported yesterday.

The ban will remain in place until related regulations are enacted.

An official with the bureau attributed the move to the absence of detailed rules to implement the Regulation on the Protection and Utilization of Uninhabited Islands.

The regulation, enacted by the China State Oceanic Administration in 2003, allows domestic units and individuals to develop and utilize those uninhabited islands with a maximum duration of 50 years.

China has more than 6,500 islands along its coast that have an area of more than 500 sq m. The number of smaller islands is more than 10,000.

But due to the absence of a regulation on the protection of these islands, some developers have done great damage to them by blowing up hills and dumping waste.

The Zhejiang official said the provincial government had set up an interdepartment management mechanism to help draft rules and plans for the protection of these uninhabited islands.

Zhu Jiali, director of the maritime management division of the Zhejiang provincial oceanic and fisheries bureau, said the mechanism will help prepare for the legislation of management of uninhabited islands.

The uninhabited islands in Zhejiang Province, which boasts the biggest number in the country, were once developed as marine product breeding centers and tourism destinations.

Relevant departments in the province will launch an overhaul to re-examine the status quo of the unmanned islands as well as crack down on the illegal practices done on the territories.

So far, 346 out of the total 3,061 uninhabited islands off the province have undergone development. But a lack of power, fresh water supplies and inconvenient communications have hindered their development.

"Developing uninhabited islands is not as simple as some people have imagined", the report quoted Chen Xiaoxian, the province's first developer of an uninhabited island, as saying.

With rich natural and marine resources on and off the 0.38 sq- km island, Chen had planned to build a "club for the rich" to attract urban white-collar workers to the island. However, problems that emerged during the development process forced the developer to abandon her initial plans.

(China Daily September 11, 2007)