KUNMING, Jan. 28 -- Southwest China's Yunnan Province has passed a new regulation to protect its old tea trees.

The regulation, which will come into effect starting from March 1, stipulates that wild and cultivated tea trees aged over 100 years should be better protected, with a ban on unauthorized cutting or transplantation of such trees.

According to the regulation, the use of chemical weed killers on old tea trees is also prohibited.

Yunnan is the province with the largest conservation area of old tea tree resources in China, with some 54 million old tea trees in the province, according to official statistics.