A senior forestry official says China plans to increase its forestry coverage up to 23 percent of the nation in 10 to 15 years.

Director of the State Forestry Administration Zhou Shengxian announced the plan on Wednesday in Beijing at a meeting on forestry.

He has called for the urgent implementation of an ecological construction strategy focusing on key forestry projects.

He also indicted that the country has planned to build coastal forestry belts on the southeastern and eastern coastal regions.

In addition a campaign against desert encroachment is to be put into effect in China's far west, where much land is under threat from desertification.

Forestry plantations in southern China are to be expanded to meet the need for lumber, and in the north east and Inner Mongolia, better protection is to be provided for forested areas. 

(CRI July 28, 2005)