China to afforest 6 million hectares in 2012

Beijing (CNS) – China plans to afforest 6 million hectares. At the same time, 1.66 million hectares of low production forest will be improved and about 2.5 billion saplings will be planted, said the director of State Forestry Administration Jia Zhibang on December 29.

Chinese volunteers have contributed over 12.7 billion person-time to tree planting in the past thirty years, a total of 58.9 billion saplings have been planted in barren areas and desert soil, including 2.5 billion saplings planted in 6.18 million hectares this year.

China's forest coverage had risen to 20.36 percent, or 195 million hectares, by the end of 2008, which increased forest stock to 13.721 billion square meters. But China's forest coverage is still less than two thirds of the world average, and the per capita forest area is still below one fourth of the world average.