China Invests US$ 12 Bln in Forest Protection
Copyright 2000 Asia Pulse Pte Limited
December 26, 2000
BEIJING, Dec 26 - China plans to invest a total of 96.2 billion yuan (US$ 12 billion) in the protection of natural forests in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, northeast China and Inner Mongolia between 2000 and 2010.
This is part of the efforts to increase the forest coverage by 3.72 percentage points to 21.24 per cent in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, and to achieve effective protection result in the forests areas in northeast China and Inner Mongolia, totaling 33 million hectares.
At a recent meeting, the newly-appointed director-general of the State Bureau of Forestry Zhou Shengxian said that the on-going protection engineering project of natural forests is an unparalleled feat, whether in scale or in investment, in the development of Chinese forestry.
The project involves 827 counties in 17 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
The move will help protect the forests of more than 61.33 million hectares in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, reduce consumption of forest resources by 61.08 million cubic meters, and cut production of timber by 12.39 million cubic meters. The areas of forests and grass are expected to increase by more than 14.66 million hectares by the year 2010, with the coverage going up from the present 25.87 per cent to 32.26 per cent, surging 6.39 percentage points.
Through the protection of key forests areas, the production of timber in key national forest areas in northeast China and Inner Mongolia is estimated to be reduced by 7.515 million cubic meters.
The project will put the 33 million hectares of forests in the areas under effective protection and control. At the same time, forest enterprises will complete their shift in operations and resettle 483,000 redundant workers.
To realize the target, the country will adopt policies to stop logging of natural forests in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, and carry logging in a planned way in the key national forests areas in northeast China and Inner Mongolia.