China will develop the forestry industry and promote reforms of collective forest rights, according to a national conference that ended on Tuesday.

The two-day conference aimed to study the sector's reform and promote the household contract system for collective forest land. Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Hui Liangyu participated in the conference.

Participants agreed that the reform was important to boost the enthusiasm of farmers, increase their income and promote the development of the forestry industry.

They said the financial system should be improved to support the forestry industry, including broadening the sector's fund-raising channel, providing more credit and improving the system of forest land ownership for mortgages.

The State Council, or Cabinet, issued a statement last July that was effective immediately, in which it called for introduction of a household contract system in the management of collective forest land and ownership of wood.

As of the end of 2008, 1.27 billion mu (84.67 million hectares) of collective forestry land, 50 percent of the total, had been contracted to farmers, according to statistics released at the conference.

China's forest coverage rate rose from 8.6 percent in the early 1950s to 18.21 percent in 2008. The country planned to raise its forest coverage rate to 26 percent by 2050.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2009)