On Jan. 23, the Executive Board of the World Bank granted a loan of 80 million dollars to support Hunan's forest restoration and development project. The move aims to recover the snow-damaged artificial forests and improve the environmental function and stability of the forest ecological system so as to enhance forests' resistance in natural disaster and climate change.
It is expected that the project will improve both local and global environment by reducing soil erosion, preserving soil fertility, strengthening the protection of biodiversity and scenery integrity as well as improving the regional climate and the forest carbon sink function. Additionally, it is estimated that about 26,130 peasant households of 1,150 villages will directly get involved in the project and benefit from it.
Liu Jin, a senior forestry expert of the World Bank taking charge of the project, introduced that it aims to try out an innovative model of replanting and restoring the forest. The creative forestation and management model can popularize the forest allocation of tree species diversity and the stable forest structure to improve the forest's ability against natural disasters and provide better environmental function.
