Thursday, October 25, 2001, updated at 16:33(GMT+8)
Life
Natural Forests Under Protection in Shanxi
Shanxi Province in north China has saved 600,000 cubic meters of forests since the felling of natural forests was stopped three years ago.
Forestry police have cracked down on illegal timber markets, while an effective task force has been formed to protect forests.
The province has returned 133,000 million hectares of farmland to forests or pastures, and also planted 18,500 hectares of new forests in the past two years.
Shanxi is located on the middle reaches of the Yellow River, where soil erosion has long been a big problem, and the preservation of natural forests is a major effort to cope with this problem.