BEIJING, March 12 -- China's State Forestry Administration (SFA) on Thursday released a bulletin showcasing development in the forestry sector to mark the country's 37th Arbor Day.

Forestation: China added 6.03 million hectares of forest area in 2014, including 348,000 ha returned from farmland. An SFA survey published in February 2014 revealed that China had 208 million ha of forest covering 21.6 percent of the country's territory.

Nature reserves: China added 11 natural preservation areas in 2014, bringing the total number of nature reserves to 2,174, which accounted for 13 percent of the country's territory.

Wetlands: China has 53.6 million ha of wetland. Last year, 140 new national wetland parks were approved, covering more than 500,000 ha.

Grasslands: The yield of fresh grass in natural grasslands reached 1.02 billion tonnes last year. Vegetation coverage stood at 53.6 percent.

Forest fires: There were 3,703 forest fires in 2014, down 17.4 percent compared to the average number of incidents in the past three years.