A new scheme for the use of land resources in China was ratified by the State Council recently, senior official with the Chinese Ministry of Land and Natural Resources announced Friday.
China made its first blueprint for land utilization in 1987.
The second land-use scheme, which is aimed to seek balance between urban development and farmland protection, will guide 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and 81 cities each with a population of over 500,000.
Under the blueprint, China's total farmland acreage is expected to stay at about 128 million hectares by 2010, and newly added land space for urban construction will be restricted within 3.4 million hectares by the end of that year, according to Pan Wencan, director of the planning department with the ministry.
China is expected to generate 4.4 million hectares of new farmland by reallocating and exploiting undeveloped land resources in the next 10 years, including some 1 million hectares of renewed farmland at old mines.
Priorities will be given to western regions on ratifying land for urban construction, said Pan, while they should study the lessons from east China areas on extensive cultivation that has wasted much land.
(People’s Daily 03/25/2001)
