Film shooting banned from nature reserves

(CRIENGLISH.com)
Updated: 2007-03-01 15:48

Film and television production companies will be prohibited from shooting in 'core' areas of nature reserves under a new limit jointly issued by four central government departments.

The State Environmental Protection Administration, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued the first-ever limit following a series of scandals over serious environmental damages caused by film production. On such blacklist include names of Chinese blockbuster directors like Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou.

The new official limit imposes ban on filming in core nature reserve areas, and stricter control of filming beyond them.

Vice Minister of the State Environment Protection Administration, Pan Yue, said punishments will go to whoever causes environment degradations or damages by shooting their films or TV programs in nature reserves or tourist destinations. Local environment and Cultural Heritage departments will strictly examine the such applications in the non-core nature reserves areas and supervise the shooting process to prevent any possible pollution.

The senior environmental official also criticized some film producers that have seriously damaged the environment, including producers of "The Promise" ("Wu Ji"), "Stories of Heroes"("Da Qi Ying Xiong Zhuan") and "Condor Hero"("Shen Diao Xia Lu").

The shooting team of 'The Promise", for example. has severely destroyed the vegetation near pristine Bigu Lake in Shangri-la, known as human paradise in southwest China's Yunnan province. While the 'Condor Hero' team has also polluted Jiuzhaigou national forest park in southwester Sichuan province." The Promise" team was fined 90,000 yuan or about 11 thousand dollars in May last year for its shameful non-environmental behaviours.

To prevent future incidents, the Ministry of Construction has revised regulations relating to the protection of scenic spots. Companies and individuals that significantly damage scenery, vegetation and landforms will now be fined between 500,000 yuan (62,500 U.S. dollars) and 1 million yuan(130,000 U.S. dollars) .