Forest coverage rises in China's largest forest zone

May 09, 2005. /Lesprom Network/. China's largest state forest zone, the Sengong Forest Zone in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, is seeing enlarging forest coverage thanks to a national natural forest protection program, an official of the forest zone said recently. Now 82.4 percent of the zone is covered by forests, 8.2 percentage points more as compared to those prior to 1998, when the country launched the natural forest protection program. More than 14.6 million cubic meters of wood were saved in the past seven years as a result of a policy of logging reduction. The expansion of forest coverage resulted in ecological returns, said Qi Qian, an official in charge of natural forest protection of the forest zone. The area now suffers fewer floods and droughts than before, and sees alleviated soil erosion, Qi said.