North China Fights Against Forest DestructionNorth China's Shanxi Province uncovered 263 cases involving the destruction of natural forests in a 15-day battle against related crimes and illegal activities.Over 6,000 local forestry policemen fined 280 people involved, caught five, and detained 30. They confiscated over 320 cubic meters of fiber during the period, retrieving over 400,000 yuan (about 48,000 US dollars in direct economic loss. Also, local offices in charge of natural forest protection closed down 26 local fiber processing factories and companies dealing in illegal fiber trade, and 11 factories producing charcoal without certificates. Shanxi, located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the mother river of the country, has been suffering serious water and soil erosion. Included in the country's natural forest protect project, the province has a protected area of 10 million hectares, accounting for 66.2 percent of its total area. The project is expected to add some 226,700 hectares of forests to the province, thus increasing its forest coverage rate by 2.2 percent. |
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