Fujian's forest coverage ratio hits record high

Fujian's forest coverage ratio surged to 66.8 percent, hitting a record high, local authorities said on Friday.

The figure, 0.85 percent higher than that in 2014, placed the province the first place for consecutive 40 years in the nation's forest coverage rankings, according to the Fujian provincial bureau of forestry.

Since 2014, the forest coverage increased 1.5 million mus (100,000 hectares), making the total figure climb to 121 million mus in the province.

Seven cities including Longyan and Sanming were designated national forest cities and 62 cities were conferred the title of provincial forest cities.

Meanwhile, the great efforts in conservation of forestry resources also generated considerable economic benefits in Fujian.

Statistics show that Fujian's forestry sector output reached 590.4 billion yuan ($86.8 billion) in 2018, a staggering annual increase of 18 percent, among which the forest tourism's revenue surged 30 percent to stand at 95 billion yuan.

According to Chen Zhaoyu, director of the Fujian the Fujian provincial bureau of forestry, Fujian plans to plant 900,000 mus of trees and conduct management on 2 million mus of forests. It will also add over 10 provincial forest cities and 200 provincial forest villages.