Top political advisor praises forestry reform

BEIJING - Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), spoke highly of the achievements made in forestry reform when visiting an exhibition Monday in Beijing.

The exhibition, sponsored by the General Office of the CPPCC National Committee, Committee of Population, Resources and Environment of the CPPCC National Committee, as well as the State Forestry Administration (SFA), features China's strategies and measures to develop its forestry sector.

China's total forest area has increased to 195 million hectares from 134 million hectares in 1992, partially thanks to increased fiscal support, national ecological projects and a compulsory tree-planting program, according to the SFA.

Despite a decreasing global forest reserve, China's forest inventory expanded by 3.6 billion cubic meters to reach 13.7 billion cubic meters during the past 20 years, SFA Vice Minister Yin Hong said at a press conference on June 4.

The country currently has 61.68 million hectares of man-made forest, the most in the world. Its desertification area is dropping by 1,717 square kilometers annually, compared to an annual expansion of 3,436 square kilometers at the end of the 1990s, according to Yin.