Yunnan forest coverage reaches 65.04%

With 282.6 million hectares covered by trees, the forest coverage rate of Yunnan province has reached 65.04 percent during the just concluded 13th Five-Year Plan period, according to the Yunnan forest authority.

“Over the past five years, Yunnan has afforested 2.56 million hectares of waste land, while turning 857,333 hectares of farmland into forest or grassland,” said Ren Zhizhong, head of the Yunnan Administration of Forest and Grassland.

Ren added that 358,906 hectares of desertification areas were treated and a 40,600-hectare shelterbelt was built up. The province has restored 432,133 hectares of overgrazed grassland, with over 100 million trees planted each year.

Reporting by Zhao Peiran (Xinhua); Trans-editing by Wang Shixue