Mountainous regions with less economic development should use their environment to their advantage, rather than sacrificing it to develop the local economy, an expert said.

"We cannot follow the development routes of the developed countries and coastal cities in China and achieve rapid economic growth at the expense of the environment," said Zhang Xinsheng, head of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Zhang made his remarks at a news conference in Beijing on Friday to discuss the upcoming Eco Forum Global Annual Conference Guiyang 2013.

As the first national-level forum on ecological construction, the three-day event will start in Guiyang, Guizhou province, on July 19. Under the theme of "Construction of Ecological Culture: Green Revolution and Transformation", the event is dedicated to the advocacy of improved green policy implementation in an attempt to seize green development opportunities, coping with eco-security challenges, and help shape the global, regional, and industrial agenda.

Zhang said it is significant that the forum will be in Guizhou, a mountainous province that was once one of China's poorest places yet one that is endowed with rich natural resources and various minority cultures.

More than 90 percent of the province's land is mountainous, and most of the mountainous areas are less economically developed than the coast.

Guizhou, with 9.23 million people under the national poverty line of 2,300 yuan ($375) per year, takes its comparative advantage and sets a good example to other poor mountainous regions with its rapid development, he said.

"The rapid economic growth of the mountainous regions does not necessarily break the ecological balance," he said.