Hebei to Build Large Shelter Forests to Protect BeijingNorth China's Hebei Province, bordering the Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, has decided to invest a huge sum of money to build three large forests belts sheltering the cities from sandstorms.According to the provincial forest department, the province will spend a total of 200 million yuan (24 million U.S. dollars) in the next three years to build three 67,000-ha forests belts to the north of the two cities. This will, together with the already existing shelter, form a 533,000-ha green shelter from winds and sands from Inner Mongolia and help water conservation efforts in the region. The province's forest coverage rate is currently 19 percent and there are 2 million ha of land left for afforestation. |
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