Jia Zhibang, administrator of the State Forestry Administration, has issued statements on the progress of Chinese forestry during the 10th Five-Year Plan priod and the considerations on the Chinese forestry development in the 11th Five-Year Guidelines.
Jia says a total of 6.66 million ha of plantations were established on average annually. The total area of plantations reached 53 million ha, with the forest cover rising from 16.55% to 18.21%.
For the past 5 years 8.67 million ha of slope and seriously desertified cropland were converted to forest land. 13.3 million ha of hills were closed for natural regeneration and consumption of forest resources was reduced by 430 million cubic meters.
Jia says, "In the previous 5 years, the gross output value of the forest industry grew remarkably, reaching over 700 billion yuan last year."
"Forestry legislation and law enforcement system was improved. Certificates with clearly defined forest ownership (or tenure) for over 90 percent of forest land were issued. The damage rate of forest fires was brought under 0.1 percent." he concluded.
