China plans to grow four million hectares of forest this year. Part of the project is focused on turning areas that had originally been forests but have recently been used as farmland back into forests.

The State Forestry Administration notes that the priority will be given to areas of utmost ecological importance and places plagued worst by ecological disasters.

The administration also urges strictly implementing basic farmland protection policies and policies that forbid transforming areas that had originally been farmland into forests.

(CRI March 31, 2004)