China boasts one quarter of world's cultivated forests ( 2003-10-06 15:09) (Xinhua)
China tops the world in terms of its preserving 26 percent of the total live
cultivated forests on this planet, or about 47 million hectares, a top forestry
official said recently.
Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Forestry Administration, said China's
production of cash forestry products has reached 6, 880 tons a year, ranking
first in the world. China's forestry output value hit 438 billion yuan (53
billion US dollars) last year, 20 times that about two decades ago, according to
Zhou.
Zhou said China has kept making progress in the restructuring of the forestry
industry in the past two decades, and private- funded afforestation has become a
major source of the increase of cultivated forests in the country.
The cultivation of cash forests, bamboo and flower industries and forestry
tourism have prospered during the period. Last year, China's forest parks
received a total of 110 million tourists and bamboo and flower products recorded
a combined sales of 20 billion yuan (2.4 billion US dollars), Zhou added.
According to Zhou, China's forest coverage rate has risen from 8.6 percent in
the 1950s to the current 16.55 percent, with its total forest area approaching
160 million hectares.
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