China plans to reform the state-owned forest industry in 2011 in some pilot provinces as a way to improve the national ecological system and develop the troubled lumber industry, Jia Zhibang, director of the State Forestry Bureau, said Wednesday, according to Xinhua.

It will focus on improving forest management and revving up the ecological barriers construction to help promote sustainable economic and national ecological security.

After the pilot programs, the reform will be applied all over the country during the 12th Five-Year Plan, Jia said. As part of the efforts, China's forest coverage rate is expected to reach 21.66 percent and forest reserves to reach 309 million hectares by 2015, said Jia.

In July 2008, China announced a reform that introduced a household contract system in the management of collective forest land and ownership of lumber.

So far, more than 80 million forest rights disputes have been resolved and 2.23 billion mu (150 million hectares) of collective forest land has been contracted to farmers, accounting for 80 percent of the total; 300 million farmers have benefited from the system.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2011)