China on Wednesday reported progress in increasing forest areas, the forest stock volume, and enhancing the ecological conservation.

The statement came as Zhu Lieke, the vice minister of the State Forestry Administration of China, was taking the floor at the high-level meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests, which is scheduled to conclude on Thursday.

"Forest resources are an important material basis for the existence and development of the mankind," Zhu said.

Thanks to the effort of the Chinese government, the pace of afforestation has been accelerated and the ecological conservation has been fully enhance, he said.

From 2003 to the end of 2008, the net increase of the national forest area amounted 20.543 million hectares, the vice minister said.

The national forest cover rose from 18.21 percent to 20.36 percent, with a net growth of the forest stock volume of 1.123 billion cubic meters, he said.

Another advancement is the ecological conservation, which " has been comprehensively enhanced and the shelter zone for safeguarding ecological security has basically come into being," Zhu said.

"Efforts have been strengthened to develop forest ecosystems, distinctively intensify wetland ecosystems, prominently improve desert ecosystems, and biodiversity conservation has yielded pronounced effects," he said.

"Forest industries have undergone rapid development and played an outstanding role in improving livelihoods and eradicating poverty," he said.

The total output value of forest industries increased from 840 billion yuan (US$127.272 billion) in 2005 to 2. 08 trillion yuan in 2010, he said.

"Among the total income of many farmers living in mountain areas, at least 60 percent comes from forestry," he said. " Forestry has become an important approach to enriching farmers."