Forest coverage increases in China's largest state-owned reserve after logging ban

(ECNS) -- Forest coverage in the Greater Khingan Mountains in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the country's largest state-owned forest reserve, has increased by 226 million cubic meters, a growth of 28.1 percent from the end of 2014 to 2024, data revealed Tuesday.

Known as the "Lungs of the Earth" alongside the Amazon rainforest, the ecological function area of the Greater Khingan Mountains in Inner Mongolia covers a total 106,700 square kilometers.

A commercial logging ban was imposed in key state-owned forest areas from the Greater Khingan Mountains in the west to the Changbai Mountains in the east. More than 3 million new seedlings have since been cultivated annually.

In 2024, the revenue of forest products totaled 69.22 million yuan ($9.52 million), a year-on-year increase of 19.7 percent, while cumulative sales of carbon sink products exceeded 60 million yuan in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest region.

An area covering 2,948,000 hectares of forest was cultivated, 16,286 hectares of artificial forest was planted, 14,246 hectares of farmland was returned to forest, 128,666 hectares of degraded forest was restored, and 31,886 hectares of vegetation was rehabilitated from 2015 to 2024. The forest area increased from 803 million cubic meters at the end of 2014 to 1.029 billion cubic meters by the end of 2024.

Tuesday marked the decade anniversary of the Greater Khingan Mountains commercial logging ban.

(By Li Yan)