The city took the lead nationally when in 1997 it introduced a series of local marine zones as a pilot programme for China and the United Nations.

According to the programme, the western sea area of Xiamen should be used "mainly for harbour and on-sea transportation, but allowing for tourism and coastal industrial development."

However, the area has long been used by local residents for farming fish, growing shells and harvesting other aquatic life.

"The city authority published a notice three years ago, urging those farmers to quit the area in the designated three-year transition period," said an official with the Xiamen city government, who would like to identify himself by the surname Wu.

Although some of the farmers withdrew from the zone after receiving government compensation, some stayed, dismissing the order as nonsense.

"Some people have not realized the importance of the programme. They do not know it is essential for the sustainable development of a seaside city like ours," Wu said.

The location of the western seas of Xiamen lends itself to harbour uses and transportation, instead of fish farming. And convenient harbour access will lay a solid foundation for the development of tourism and other coastal industries, Wu said.

Therefore, when the three-year transition period ended on April, the municipal government staged an all-out effort to clear the remaining fish and shell farms.

The municipal government has also promised job training as well as compensation for those affected.

The cost of closing down the marine farms and cleaning up the area is expected to be 199 million yuan (US$24 million). The whole project will wrap up in the year 2004.

"Over two decades of marine farming has seriously polluted the area," said Wu.

Each year, the farms discharge vast amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the western seas of Xiamen.

Their load equates to about 10 per cent and 50 per cent of the nitrogen and phosphorous released in the city's sewerage annually.

As a result, the area has suffered from algal blooms known as red tides five times in the past two years, causing millions of US dollars damage.

But Xiamen's approach to marine zones, though unique in China at present, is likely to be widely copied in the next few years along China's coastline.

All 11 coastal provincial regions in China have completed detailed plans of their own to establish marine zones as part of a national programme, which was published in September.

With most of those plans being put into practice next year, China will enter an era of "orderly" marine management, said A Dong, a leading official with the Department of Marine Management of the State Oceanographic Administration.

The national programme takes account of the location, natural resources and environments of different marine areas and identifies 10 purposes to guide their development.

They set aside areas for harbours and communications, for utilization, cultivation and protection of fishery resources, for mineral resource development, for tourism, for sea water utilization, for oceanographic energy, for marine engineering, for bio-protection, for special disposal, and for reservation.

Each designated area has its own special requirements for water quality and approved human activities. For example, no sand mining is allowed in areas set aside for fishing, while no sewage should be discharged directly into marine tourism zones.

"We shall develop each marine area according to the programme, ending all activities that are banned in the zone," said Wang Fei, a spokesman of the administration.

"This adjustment is due to be completed by 2005."

(China Daily December 31, 2002)