North China's Shanxi Province has set a goal to increase local forest coverage to 18 percent by 2010 from the current 13.17 percent, by planting, beginning this year, an average 267,000 hectares of trees annually.  

In the longer term, local forest coverage is expected to top 30 percent by the year 2050, according to a provincial work conference held every three years on the forestry sector, which concluded in Shuozhou on Wednesday.

During the past three years, trees planted acreage in the province totaled 1.517 million hectares, a rise of 20.7 percent from the combined volume in the previous three years.

Local investment in forestry in 2004 will keep nearly the same level as that recorded a year ago at approximately 1.8 billion yuan (US$217 million), as against 460 million yuan (about 55.4 million) in 2000.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2004)