China's government will earmark a total 200 billion yuan (US$30 billion) to afforestation schemes to the end of 2021, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) announced Wednesday.

The central government spent 233.2 billion yuan on the 415 million mu (27.7 million hectares) of new forests planted from 1999 to 2009, said Wu Lijun, head of afforestation in the SFA, at a press conference in Beijing.

Among the total, 139 million mu were farmland returned to woodlands, Wu said.

Since the government started to subsidize farmers who return their farmland to woodland in 1999 to combat soil erosion in central and west China, more than 124 million farmers had been subsidized, he said.

China had 195 million hectares of forests by the end of 2008, according to the most recent survey by the SFA.

In China, forest refers to woods covering an area of more than 1 mu (0.06 hectares) with crown density -- the measure of skylight blocked by plant material -- at or above 20 percent, according to the SFA.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2010)