More than 52 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion) has been invested in a national project to protect old-growth forests, helping save 320 million cubic metres of the valuable timber from being felled.

The protection project was firstly run as a pilot strategy in 1998, before being officially launched in 2000. It is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

The project, involving a total investment of 96.8 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion), aims to protect old-growth forests in China, plant new trees and help some 741,000 excessive forestry workers find new jobs.

Among the money, 49.5 billion yuan (US$5.9 billion) has come from the central government and the rest from local governments, the State Forestry Administration revealed on Friday.

The timber output in national old-growth forests in Northeast China and North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has dropped to about 10.9 million cubic metres this year. In 1997, the output was more than 18.5 million cubic metres.

The gap in the market has been made up by an increase of timber from planted forests throughout the country and more efficient timber use, sources with the administration said.

In six provinces in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, such as Southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and seven provinces in the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River, people have not been allowed to cut down trees and sell them since 2000.

Since the project began, more than 3.8 million hectares of forest have been planted.

In addition, 8.8 million hectares of old-growth and newly planted trees have been put under protection.

The number of people taking care of forests increased to 193,000 last year from 32,000 in 1998.

Meanwhile, 660,000 excessive forest workers have been assisted in finding new employment.

Sources with the administration said the focus of the next phase of the project will turn to achieving sustainable development in forests both in economic and social aspects.

Nearly 60 foreign and domestic forestry experts are attending an international forum on natural forest protection and the sustainable operation of forests, which opened on Friday, to discuss how to achieve the goal of sustainable development.

China's national forest protection project has attracted close attention from the international community.

The United Nations Development Programme launched a four-year project to technically support China's national forest protection project in March 2001. It will donate US$1 million under the US$2.5 million project.

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