China tops the world in terms of its preserving 26 percent of the total live cultivated forests on this planet, or about 47 million hectares, a top forestry official said recently.

Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Forestry Administration, said China's production of cash forestry products has reached 6, 880 tons a year, ranking first in the world. China's forestry output value hit 438 billion yuan (US$53 billion) last year, 20 times that about two decades ago, according to Zhou.

Zhou said China has kept making progress in the restructuring of the forestry industry in the past two decades, and private- funded afforestation has become a major source of the increase of cultivated forests in the country.

The cultivation of cash forests, bamboo and flower industries and forestry tourism have prospered during the period. Last year, China's forest parks received a total of 110 million tourists and bamboo and flower products recorded a combined sales of 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion), Zhou added.

According to Zhou, China's forest coverage rate has risen from 8.6 percent in the 1950s to the current 16.55 percent, with its total forest area approaching 160 million hectares.