Govt approves no-development zones in 15 regions

China has approved plans by 15 province sand regions to draw up “redlines” that will put large swathes of its territory off-limits to economic development, the environment ministry said on Monday. The “ecological protection red line” scheme was first devised in 2011 amid fears that decades of “ir rational development” had put China’ s environment under heavy strain. It is designed to ban or restrict industrial development in wetlands, forests, national parks or protected nature zones.