More nature reserves will be designated to preserve the country's rich natural resources and biodiversity, a senior forest official said yesterday in Beijing.

Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration (SFA), said that by 2020, the SFA will designate 2,300 areas specially to protect forests, wild animals and other natural resources.

The reserves will cover a combined 140 million hectares, or 14.5 percent of the mainland's total land area.

These nature reserves will include 95 percent of the country's plants and wild animal species under State key protection, Zhu told a press conference.

The country will also have more than 600 wetland nature reserves by 2020, protecting more than 60 percent of its total natural wetlands, he said.

China has planted 53.3 million hectares of forests in the past 58 years, more than any other country in the world, with the forest coverage rate rising from 8.6 percent to 18.2 percent, the administration said.

The country also aims to raise forest coverage to 20 percent by 2010, 23 percent by 2020 and 26 percent by 2050 from the current 18.6 percent, said Zhu.

The SFA figures show that the current number of nature reserves under the administration stands at about 1,740, accounting for 12.6 percent of the country's total land area.

(China Daily December 5, 2007)