The five-year development program of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has included proposals from a strategic environmental impact assessment (SEIA), the first development program in the country to do so, a senior environmental official said in Beijing Wednesday.

"This is the first time that a SEIA has formed part a province's economic and social development program," said Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

"The practice will pave the way for the country to combat environmental degradation at the source," he said.

The environmental assessment attempts to predict and assess the environmental impact of economic policies and programs before they are implemented.

China is facing severe environmental degradation, which many blame on the lack of environmental assessments during the drafting of development programs.

Inner Mongolia has suffered environmental deterioration in recent years due to over-zealous industrial development, intensive farming and over-grazing of the grassland.

Pan said Inner Mongolia's new five-year development program had adopted most of the proposals put forward in the SEIA report which was prepared by the SEPA and regional environment departments.

The proposals try to balance environmental protection with economic growth by establishing five major ecological regions and cutting coal production to 400 million tons from 500 million tons.

Inner Mongolia, which accounts for one-eighth of China's land mass, is rich in mineral resources and is an ecological sensitive area. It acts as a barrier preventing sand storms from reaching Beijing and other parts of China.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2006)