Chongqing - The city has made specific plans to increase the forest coverage rate along the Yangtze River section to 60%, according to a press conference of the Infomation Office of Chongqing Municipal People's Government on Monday. The current forest coverage rate of this area is said to be around 49.2%.

As part of a nationwide campaign to preserve our "mother river" Yangtze River and the Three Gorges Reservoir area, the municipal government issued the "Implementation Plan for Planing and Constructing 'Thousand Mile Forest Belt' along Yangtze River Chongqing Section" earlier this year to address the ecological improvement issue.

The specified areas include the two banks of the mainstream Yangtze River, the Thre Gorges Reservoir, and the Chongqing sections of Jialing River, Wujiang River, and Fujiang River, within the 1,000-meters-or-so distance from the two banks, according to the implementation plan.

The 10-year-stretching forestation and landscape plan involves a total area of 8.73 million mu from across the city's 29 counties and districts. Last year has already seen 100,000 mu of woods being added to the forest belt area, with 80,000 mu quantity forest and 20,000 mu quality forest.

By 2025, the city aims to build another 1.9 million mu of woods along the forest belt area, with 900,000 mu quantity forest and 1 million quality forest. After the initial pilot stage and the following mass planting stage, the forestation and landscape project will conclude its final consolidation stage in 2030, with 1.15 million mu more quality forest being added to the forest belt area.