By the year 2010, trees and grass will cover 21.4 per cent of the land in 75 counties and districts in Beijing, Tianjin, provinces of Shanxi and Hebei and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Zhou Shengxian, head of the administration, mapped out the blueprint for the "Beijing-rim Sandstorm-preventing Project" at a meeting attended by provincial forestry authorities held Thursday in Beijing.

One of the principle causes of sandstorms is considered to be a lack of vegetation, which currently covers only 6.7 per cent of the land in the regions.

The project is a part of the State Forestry Administration's ambition to make a thorough face-lift of China's ecology system.

According to Zhou, six key forestry projects will be launched over the next few years to complete the missions.

* Protecting natural forests. Cutting down trees will be banned in regions along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, with timber output reduced by about 20 million cubic metres.

A total of 96.2 billion yuan (US$11.6 billion) will be used to plant trees on 12.6 million hectares.

* Planting 23 million hectares of forests in the "three norths" areas -- northern China, northwestern China and northeastern China -- and the regions along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

* Fighting soil erosion.

Major tree and grass planting will take place on former cultivated lands. By 2010, soil erosion on 23 million hectares should be under control.

* Saving rare wild animals.

Up to 10 species of wild animals, including pandas and golden monkeys, will be protected, along with various ecosystems. More natural reserves will be established, accounting for 16.14 per cent of the country's area by 2010.

* Establishing commercial forests

Once the project is completed, a volume of roughly 133 million cubic metres of timber will be turned out every year, satisfying 40 per cent of domestic demand.

(China Daily 02/16/2001)