China Starts 10-year Program to Protect Natural ForestsZhou Shengxian, director of the State Forestry Administration, announced the start of a 10-year program to protect natural forests Wednesday, December 6.The government will invest 96.2 billion yuan (about US$11.6 million) in this program over the next ten years, he said at a meeting. The central government will provide 78.4 billion yuan and the rest will come from local governments, he said. The program covers natural forests in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as that in Inner Mongolia and northeast China, with 17 provinces and autonomous regions involved. Logging will be banned to protect the existing 61.18 million hectares of natural forests in the upper and middle reaches of the two rivers and the government plans to cut down the timber output of the forestry stations in Inner Mongolia and northeast China by 75 billion cubic meters. Forests in these areas are expected to increase by 8.6 million hectares with the forest coverage rising from 17.5 percent now to 21.2 percent in 2010 under this program, Zhou said. China started the tentative work for the program two years ago with government investment reaching 10.1 billion yuan in 1998 and 1999. |
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