Print This Page Email This Page
China Sees Rapid Expansion of Man-made Forests

Thanks to years of afforestation efforts, the acreage of China's man-made forests has exceeded 53.4 million hectares to rank the first in the world, an official with the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, on Monday.

The country's forest coverage has risen to 18.21 percent of the land area, from 8.6 percent in the early 1950s, the official said at a forum on desert control and ecological civilization in Bijie of Guizhou Province in southwest China.

Earlier, the SFA revealed in its 2007 Green Coverage Report that 51.54 billion trees had been planted by ordinary Chinese people in the past three decades.

A total of 2.27 billion trees were planted last year by 58 percent of the population, lifting the urban forestry coverage to 35.11 percent, up 2.57 percentage points, figures with the SFA showed.

Nationwide forest restoration efforts have helped fuel the fastest expansion of man-made forests in China, taking up 53.2 percent of the global annual increase, or one third of the world's total, said the SFA.

China's forest acreage reached 175 million hectares last year, raising the country's forest coverage to 18.21 percent, compared with 12 percent in 1981.

The per capita public green area edged up 0.41 to 8.3 square meters last year, which is still much lower than the international average.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2008)


Related Stories
- Returning Farmland to Forests to Protect Farmers' Income
- Chinese Senior Leader Stresses Afforestation

Print This Page Email This Page
Official Warns Environmental Pollution No Longer Acceptable
Quake Zone Reconstruction Speeded up with Another 20 Bln Yuan
Central Bank Chops Rate to Revive Economy
Courtesy Card for Beijing Seniors Unveiled
Economic Crisis Makes Central and Western China Suffer More
Psychological Abuse 'on Rise'


Product Directory
China Search
Country Search
Hot Buys