North China province sees increasing forest coverage

TAIYUAN - North China's Shanxi province saw forest coverage reach 22.79 percent in 2018 according to the latest survey by local forestry and grassland authorities.

The province, located in China's Loess Plateau, has been planting trees in recent years in a move to improve its environment. In the last national forest resource survey in 2015, its forest coverage was 20.5 percent.

From 2016 to 2018, 917,300 hectares of forests were created, with an expenditure of 15.42 billion yuan ($2.22 billion), according to the provincial forestry and grassland administration.

The province will continue to plant more trees and aims to increase forest coverage to 23.5 percent in 2020 and to 26 percent in 2025, according to the administration.