In recent years, policymakers in China have moved beyond the single-minded pursuit of GDP to tackle other key issues such as the environment.

According to Live Science, the country’s top six environmental concerns are air pollution, water pollution, desertification, biodiversity, cancer villages and population growth. Policies introduced to tackle these problems include the introduction of Green GDP and reducing the annual growth target to ease the pressure on the environment.

Another approach has been to target officials who have violated environmental laws. In the first 8 months of this year Guangdong Province probed 440 officials on this basis, more than three times the total of previous years.

China Daily has more:

Lu Yingming, then the director-general of the Guangdong Land and Natural Resources Department, was removed from his post and detained in April after he was investigated for illegally approving sand excavation in the Pearl River, destroying and damaging the ecology and environment along riverbanks and in the riverbeds.

Lu was investigated on suspicion of accepting bribes of more than 20 million yuan ($3.27 million) from local river-sand traders.

“Lu will soon be transferred to the judicial department for prosecution,” Zhang said.

Lu was deputy director-general of the Guangdong Water Conservancy Department and was in charge of river-sand excavation before he took office in the Land and Natural Resources Department in March.

The officials under investigation come from industries such as sewage treatment, forestry, gardening, garbage disposal, construction, land and natural resources.