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China spends 89.8 bln yuan protecting natural forests in five years

Xinhua, June 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

China invested 89.8 billion yuan (13.7 bln U.S. dollars) in projects for the conservation of natural forest resources from 2011 to 2015, a government report revealed on Tuesday.

With the whopping investment, China has put 1.08 million square kilometers of natural forests under effective protection, according to the report highlighting improvement of human rights, including the environment rights. The report was released by the State Council Information Office.

China's forest coverage reached 21.66 percent by the end of 2015, and the national greenery coverage in urban areas had reached 40.22 percent by 2014, it said.

The area of established nature reserves reached 1.47 million square kilometers, accounting for 14.84 percent of the country's total land area, it said, adding over 90 percent of the country's land ecosystems, 89 percent of wildlife species under state protection and 86 percent of wild plant species under state protection were conserved in nature reserves.

Besides, heavy metal pollution has effectively been brought under control. In 2014, the total pollutant discharge of 5 major heavy metals including lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and the metalloid element - arsenic, decreased by 20 percent as compared with that in 2007.

In 2015, 97.1 percent of the drinking water from centralized supply sources in 338 cities at the prefecture level and above met the quality standard.

Efforts for air quality control have been boosted. In August 2015, China amended the law on air pollution prevention and control, made improving atmospheric quality as its goal, emphasized government responsibilities and improved measures targeted towards controlling air pollution.

Between 2011 and 2015, the emissions of 4 major pollutants including chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide decreased by 12.9 percent, 13.0 percent, 18.0 percent and 18.6 percent respectively.

"Environment monitoring bodies...cracked down severely on environmental law violations and environmental pollution crimes, and effectively safeguarded the environmental rights of the public," it read.

A compensation system for the damage to the ecosystem has been further improved, according to the report. Endit