China's Per Capita Cultivated Land Barely Half of World AverageIn 2000 China's per capita cultivated land was only 0.101 ha. on average, barely half of the world average, according to a communique released here Tuesday by the State Environmental Protection Administration.According to the communique, China's total land area ranks third in the world, but its per capita average land area is only a third of the world average. Currently the cultivated land has mounted to 13.7 percent of the total, surpassing the world average by 3.5 percentage points. In 2000, a total of 1.566 million ha. of cultivated land were occupied for purposes other than farming, discounting newly increased cultivated land of 291,000 ha., the actually occupied land area was 1.275 million ha. By the end of last year, the number of China's nature reserves had reached 1,227, accounting for about 9.85 percent of its total land area. |
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