Rampant mining damaging one of China's largest mangroves - and authorities 'turning blind eye'

Illegal "rampant quarrying" has damaged one of mainland China's largest mangrove reserves in southern west Guangxi autonomous region say villagers, who accuse local authorities of "receiving benefits in return for turning a blind eye".

Nineteen huge open limestone pits - some up to 40 metres deep and stretching over an area of more than 1,300 square metres - have been dug in the mangrove forests and tidal flats of Hepu county where locals once farmed shrimps and crabs.

The mining had caused ecological damage, and air and noise pollution, The Beijing News reported yesterday.

A villager in Dushan told the Sunday Morning Post that quarrying in the area - which comes under the administration of coastal Beihai city - had been going on for about a decade, but intensified in recent years.

"The mining pits have become bigger and deeper recently," said the villager who refused to be identified. "Miners are removing mangroves as well as the surface layers of sand before mining for limestone."

He estimated that about 2,500 square metres of mangrove had been lost in Dushan alone, and that mining could have damaged several thousand square kilometres of Hepu mangroves.