China is playing its part in the conservation of the world's
forests through the recycling of wastepaper, officials said yesterday in
Beijing.
"China imports tons of wastepaper each year to be used for
paper-making and paperboard products," Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State
Forestry Administration, said.
The country also produces many packaging
materials to be used at home and abroad.
In this way, China has made "a
supreme" contribution to global timber conservation, Zhu said at a news
conference.
Zhu appealed to the media to pay equal attention to China's
wastepaper processing, as it does to the country's timber imports.
A
recent report by Forest Trends, a leading international forestry organization,
said that from an environmental perspective, China's increasing demand for
wastepaper has prevented an extra 65 million tons of wastepaper from heading to
landfills in the United States, Japan and Europe in the past four years.
Imports of wastepaper had saved an estimated 54.3 million metric tons of
green trees from being harvested in 2006, according to Brian Stafford, the lead
author of the report, and an expert on the pulp and paper industry.
The report also
said wastepaper, domestic and imported, is estimated to constitute 62.6 percent
of China's total fiber supply for paper and paperboards.
In response to
media claims that timber imports had caused excessive logging in some foreign countries, Zhu said China
is resolutely opposed to illegal and destructive logging.
He said the
bulk of China's imports go back to foreign markets after processing.
The
country imported $6.24 billion worth of timber last year, and exported $17.8
billion after processing.
Zhu said between 1990 and 2000, China recorded
an annual 1.2 percent expansion rate or 1.8 million hectares of forest, while
elsewhere in the world forests were shrinking by 0.2 percent a year.
China tops the world in forestation with 54 million hectares, Jia
Zhibang, head of the State Forestry Administration, said at the same press
conference.
As trees help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by absorbing
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the expanded forest area means China's is
playing a big role in mitigating global climate change, Jia said.
China's forests currently absorb at least 500 million tons of carbon
dioxide equivalent a year, or about 8 percent of the emissions from the
country's use of fossil fuels, according to administration sources.
(China Daily 07/18/2007 page 3)
Vocabulary:
pulp：紙漿
logging：伐木作業
（英語點津 Linda 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Bernice Chan is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Originally from
Vancouver, Canada, Bernice has written for newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong
and most recently worked as a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, producing current affairs shows and
documentaries.
