The State Forestry Administration (SFA) has approved 62 new national forest parks across the country to protect natural resources and boost tourism, the SFA said last Thursday.

With the new parks, the total number of national forest parks in China now come to 627, covering an area of more than 11 million hectares, said Cao Qingyao, the SFA's spokesman.

The SFA requires an overall plan for each park. No permanent construction project can start before the plans are approved.

In addition, the plans should focus on appropriate development and sustainable utilization, said Cao.

China's first forest park was established in 1982 in Zhangjiajie in central China's Hunan Province. Since then, forest parks have become popular tourist destinations, said Cao, adding that the forest parks receive more than 100 million tourists annually, providing tourism revenue of more than 100 billion yuan (US$12.5 billion).

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2006)