Shaanxi Province in northwest China plans to turn one million ha of farmland into forests in the coming 12 years to improve its ecological environment for achieving the goal of sustainable economic development.

With the completion of the project which will involve an investment of 20 billion yuan, Shaanxi's forest area will increase by 2.93 million ha, and its forest coverage rate will be up from present 28.8 percent to 43 percent.

By then, 97,900 square kilometers of land suffering from soil erosion will be reclaimed.

Under the plan, a farmer will get 100 kg of grain from the State each year for turning every 0.07 hectares of farmland into forest.

Shaanxi's soil erosion land accounted for 50 percent of the country's total. Each year, 920 million tons of sand is washed into the country's two largest rivers, Yangtze and Yellow.

The deteriorating ecological environment caused by soil erosion and desertification led to the frequent occurrence of disasters, causing huge economic losses to Shaanxi.

Over the past five decades, the Chinese government had implemented large scale forest construction projects in Shaanxi, including the forest shelter project in north, northeast and northwest China, a forest shelter project on the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, a soil erosion control project in Yulin Prefecture and on the loess plateau.

By 1998, the province had reclaimed 70,000 square kilometers of soil eroded land and planted more than 10 million ha of trees. It had also set up 256,000 ha of nature reserves. (Xinhua)