Beijing forest coverage rate reaches 42 pct

BEIJING -- The forest coverage of Beijing has more than tripled from 12.8 percent to 42.3 percent since the country launched a national tree-planting campaign in the early 1980s, said the city authorities.

The proportion of green land in urban Beijing increased from 20 percent in 1980 to 48 percent last year.

A total of 200 million saplings have been planted since the campaign began, said the Beijing Afforestation Committee Office on Sunday.

Last year, the city planted trees on 12,700 hectares of land. This year, it plans to have volunteers plant one million trees.

The tree-planting campaign has led to fewer barren mountains, and authorities have encouraged residents to register to take care of the trees, said the office.

In 1979, China designated March 12 as National Tree Planting Day.