China facing challenges in conserving forestry resources: official

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-11-17 17:26

Jia Zhibang, head of the State Forestry Administration (SFA), announced the results of the seventh investigation of national forest resources Tuesday, and pointed out the major challenges in protecting and developing forest resources, www.people.cn reported.

"First, the total volume of the national forest resources is small and the forest coverage rate only reaches to two thirds of the global average level, ranking 139 in the world," Jia said, adding the national per capita forest coverage is 0.145 hectares, one fourth shy of the global average level. The per capita forest stocking volume is 10.151 cubic meters, lagging far behind the global average level.

"Second, the quality of the forest is low, with the arbor volume at 85.88 cubic meters, barely 78 percent of the global average level. The average diameter of trees is only 13.3 centimeters and the per capita arbor volume is 49.01 cubic meters," Jia said.

Forest preservation faces even more challenges, according to Jia. Compared with the sixth investigation on forest resources, the seventh result shows an improvement in reduction of forest, but 831 million hectares of forest is turning into non-forest land, he said.

Jia also noted the challenges with afforestation. "The soil under fit condition only makes up 13 percent of the total land. It takes more efforts in protecting the forest resources."

"The ecological problem is a major issue in the sustainable development of China and the big gap between China and the developed countries," Jia added.

President Hu Jintao has proposed to increase 40 million hectares of forest by the end of 2020. To realize this goal, Jia suggested the SFA put more effort in keeping an ecological balance, provide more benefits to tree planting families, strengthen forest management and improve the forest quality guided by scientific development concepts, according to the website.