About 34 percent of Tibet's vast land has been zoned as natural reserves, Qiongba Puncog, chairman of the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said in Beijing Friday.

Tibet now has nine state natural reserves, six regional ones and 23 at city and county levels with a total area of about 400,000 sq km, he told reporters after a panel discussion of the Tibetan delegation to the First Session of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

Meanwhile the region is also home to seven national parks and two national geo-parks, in addition to 17 ecological function reserves, Qiongba Puncog said.

As the ecological environment in Tibet is vital to China and the whole Asia, the region is investing much and working hard to protect it, he said.

"We are protecting the environment in the same way of taking care of our eyes," he said, adding that so far Tibet has reported no pollution accident or acid rain.

"Tibet is still what it was and one of the places in the world that boast the best natural environment," he said.

A project will not be approved without environmental assessment, he said. "We will say no to any environment-damaging project even if it yields gold."

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2008)