China's forest coverage has risen constantly for almost two
decades, increasing the nation's contribution to the world's carbon
dioxide absorption, Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State
Forestry Administration (SFA), said yesterday.
The world's forested area decreased by about 0.2 percent
annually or 9.39 million hectares between 1990 and 2000, said Zhu,
citing statistics from the Food and Agricultural Organization of
the United Nations.
However, forests in China had been growing by 1.2 percent or
1.81 million hectares every year in the same period, the highest
growth rate in the world, Zhu said at a press conference in
Beijing.
The expanding forests had enabled the country to absorb more
carbon dioxide every year.
Experts estimated carbon dioxide absorbed by China's forests had
risen from 470 million tons in 1990 to more than 500 million tons
currently.
China led the world in forestation with 54 million hectares of
cultivated forest, according to SFA chief Jia Zhibang.
Since the drive for voluntary tree-planting and forestation 26
years ago, Chinese people had planted 49.2 billion trees, he
added.
The country's forest coverage was 18.21 percent or 175 million
hectares, and its commodity timber coverage stood at 13.6 billion
cubic meters, which would grow by 500 million cubic meters
annually, Jia said.
Research showed every new cubic meter of forest absorbed 1.83
tons of carbon dioxide and emitted 1.62 tons of oxygen on
average.
(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2007)