To ensure the success
of China's massive afforestation project and make the vast stretches
of barren land in its western region green again, the forestry
authorities have vowed to industrialize the production of seeds
and saplings in the years ahead.
Over half of the
seedlings and saplings to be planted under China's afforestation
project in the 2001-05 period, the 10th Five-Year Plan period,
are expected to be provided by key State-run nurseries, according
to the forestry authorities.
So far, China has
built 2,300 such nurseries, covering 95,000 hectares of land
for the cultivation of seedlings and over 1.8 million hectares
of land for the collection of high-quality seeds, according
to Zhou Shengxian, minister of the State Forestry Administration.
Annually, China
is capable of producing seedlings that could cover about 20
million square kilometers of land.
However, only 30
percent of the seedlings used for afforestation come from
the State-run nurseries, and only 20 per cent of those planted
have a high survival rate and are drought resistant and are
therefore of a high quality.
The quality of
seedlings is low due to the lack of control and supervision
over the market. Poor quality goods are prevalent, Zhou complained,
indicating that they "have harmed the legal interests
and zeal of millions of people working hard towards the afforestation
of China in recent years."
Using poor quality
seedlings could spell disaster for China's long-term afforestation
plans.
Zhou said he hopes
local forestry authorities will make the planting of ecological
forests and the development of voluntary tree-planting projects
their top priorities in the years to come
(China Daily 02/02/2001)
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