The Chinese government has approved and started six national projects to protect forests, said Professor Jiang Zehui, head of Chinese Research Institute of Forestry, yesterday.
The six key projects are wild forest protection, afforestation in northwest, north and northeast areas and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, turning farmland into forests and grassland, a sand control project around Beijing, development of nature reserve zones, and timber production base construction, said Jiang.
The six projects, covering almost every region in the country, form a campaign in an attempt to stop environmental deterioration, said Xinhua News Agency.
Jiang said that the government will safeguard and restore wild forests in the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and neighboring areas. An approved plan will cut the timber output by 19 million cubic meters in these regions and plant trees in an area of 12.7 million hectares.
The green shelter belt system covering the northwest, north and northeast parts of the country is believed to be the nation's largest ecological effort. They will bring an additional 22.7 million hectares of forest.
The environment in Beijing will be significantly improved in the near future and the living quality of the 12 million residents will also been greatly lifted as a result, according to Jiang.
(eastday.com 07/20/2001)
