Pine caterpillars severely damaged around 17,000 hectares of forest in the county-level city of Arxan in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the first half of this year, according to a report from the State Forestry Administration.

The affected area lies in the west of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, one of the nation's most important forestry bases, and accounts for one-fifth of Inner Mongolia's cultivated forests.

In some heavily stricken areas, leaves have been completely eaten up by the pine caterpillar and some of the trees have withered and died.

The report said one reason for the calamity was the dry weather in the area, which made it easy for the pest to reproduce.

However, an official with the forestry administration surnamed Lin pointed out that the cultivation of single species of trees in the forests meant the food chain was incomplete for the animals in the forest, which was another root cause of the plague.

According to the administration, forests across China have been hit harder by disease and pests so far this year, with the area hit by pests totaling 7 million hectares.

Wang Yang, another official with the administration, said the government is confident it will bring the pest under control.

She said the country now has a set of techniques ready for pest prevention and control. These mostly rely on the pest's natural enemy and do not pollute the environment.

An environmentally friendly pesticide is used to kill the pine caterpillar. It is made from the cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus extracted from the insect itself.

In the past, a chemical method, unlike the "biological measures" used today, was adopted on a wide scale to kill the pest, said Wang.

The poisonous chemicals in the traditional pesticide not only eliminated the destructive insects but also threatened their natural enemies, such as birds, said Wang. Therefore, it resulted in widespread pollution.

Forest fires always attracted a lot of attention from the public since they pose a serious threat to people's lives and property, but now the government is putting more energy into environmental protection, according to Wang.

In recent years, the State has been preparing an early-warning system to combat insect pests across the country. The authorities have transferred their focus from providing relief when the pests strike to conducting timely forecasts at an early stage.

Under the new system, a widespread information network has been set up across provinces, cities and counties. Information on pests and diseases can be transmitted more effectively and promptly, said Wang.

As regards the next step of network development, Wang said the government will focus on setting up a system of supervision from the air, which is set to save more labour power and be more accurate than manual forest inspections.

Meanwhile, a lack of forest coverage - especially in western China - has gravely endangered the nation's environment, a senior forestry official was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

China has only about 16.55 percent of forest coverage. The latest statistics from the forestry administration show that the forest coverage in the 11 western provinces and autonomous regions is just 9.06 percent, about a third the rate in east China.

The situation is worse in the five provinces and autonomous regions in Northwest China, where there is only 3.34 percent of forest coverage.

(China Daily October 15, 2003)