Chinese province on Loess Plateau sees increasing forests

Aerial photo taken on Oct. 16, 2020 shows the scenery of Mahuangliang loess geo-park at Mahuangliang Town of Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

XI'AN, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Shaanxi, a province on the Loess Plateau in northwest China, has seen its forest coverage rate exceed 45 percent, up by two percentage points from the level five years ago, the provincial forestry authorities said on Monday.

From 2016 to 2020, the province planted about 2.46 million hectares of trees, contributing to the rising forest coverage, said Dang Shuangren, head of the provincial forestry bureau.

Shaanxi returned 190,000 hectares of farmland to forest or grassland in the past five years, with another 350,000 hectares of desertified land treated, said Dang.

The Loess Plateau used to be plagued by chronic soil erosion in the last century, resulting in ecological imbalances. Tens of millions of tonnes of mud and sand washed into the Yellow River, making up most of the silt that gave the river its name.