China to spend 700 mln yuan on forestry projects

The Ministry of Finance said Monday that the central government has allocated 700.87 million yuan (113.4 million U.S. dollars) to fund forestry projects this year as part of efforts to improve the country's environment.

Some 198.06 million yuan will fund erosion control and other projects in 24 regions, including north China's Beijing Municipality, Hebei Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the ministry said in an online statement.

The rest of the money will be used to fund projects in northeast China's Liaoning Province, as well as southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in order to boost the local economies of those areas, the ministry said.

China's forest coverage totaled 195 million hectares, or 20.36 percent of the country's total area, as of the end of 2008. The government aims to expand the coverage to 23 percent by 2020.