China spends 1.5 bln USD foreign funding in forestry by 2010

China has spent a total of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars of foreign loans and grants on its forestry sector by the end of last year since the country started international cooperation on forestry development in 1985, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) announced Tuesday.

The foreign funding, together with 8.7 billion yuan (about 1.37 billion U.S.dollars) of domestic funds, has helped develop a total of 5.82 million hectares of artificial afforestation and increased standing timber volume by 550 million cubic meters in China, said the SFA.

The foreign loans and grants have promoted regional sustainable development and helped revive China's forestry sector, said the SFA.

By the end of 2010, China had co-launched 21 forestry projects in the country's 23 provincial regions with foreign financial organizations, like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, on environment improvement, bio-diversity protection and poverty reduction, it said.