China aims to further expand vegetation coverage of grasslands

China aims to further enhance the vegetation coverage ratio of grasslands in a bid to improve the grassland ecology, said an official with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

China will strive to raise the vegetation coverage ratio of grasslands to over 57 percent by 2025 and 60 percent by 2035, said Zhang Jianlong, head of the administration, at a national grassland work conference.

Policy measures will be further improved to strengthen protection and restoration of grasslands, while grassland degrading should be comprehensively curbed by 2025, Zhang said.

The vegetation coverage ratio of grasslands reached 55.7 percent last year, up 6.7 percentage points from 2011.

Meanwhile, the output of fresh grass in natural grasslands stood at 1.1 billion tonnes in 2018, maintaining over 1 billion tonnes for eight consecutive years.