Henan Province in central China plans to invest over 80.2 billion yuan (about US$9.6 billion) in forestry from this year through 2020 so as to increase its forest coverage rate to more than 30 percent.  

According to a forestry development blueprint issued by the provincial government recently, the province had made a two-stage plan for the ambition.

In the first stage, from now until 2010, the coverage rate will reach 26 percent by newly increasing a forestry area of 1.4 million hectares with the production value of 60 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion).

The plan in this stage also aims to retire 1.13 million hectares of fragile land from farming and switch it to forest and effectively protect forests along the reaches of the Yellow, Yangtze and Huaihe rivers and in the Taihang mountain areas.

In the second stage, from 2010 to 2020, the coverage rate will be maintained at 30 percent by adding 600,000 hectares of forest with an annual production value of 100 billion yuan (about US$12 billion).

Currently, the province has a frail ecosystem with a forest coverage rate of 19.83 percent, ranking 21st among all the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in the country.

The Chinese government made a decision to speed up the development of forestry last month, hoping to increase the country's forest coverage rate from 16.55 to 23 percent by 2020.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2003)