The Shanxi Forestry and Grassland Bureau recently announced that North China's Shanxi province will establish a system of forest chiefs by the end of 2020 -- to establish a long-term mechanism for forest resource protection and development and to upgrade the province's forestry governance system and capabilities.

According to a plan put together by Shanxi Provincial Government, the province will hire government officials as forest chiefs at the provincial, city, county, town and village levels to be responsible for forest resource protection and development.

Officials said Shanxi has set two-stage goals for the new system.

One aim is that by 2025, the province's forest coverage rate will exceed 26 percent and the forest volume will reach 169 million cubic meters. Its grassland vegetation coverage will reach 73.5 percent and the wetlands' protection rate will reach 55 percent.

Over 70 percent of the governable sandy land in the province will have been treated and a forest resource protection and development system with a reasonable layout, an optimized structure and complete functions will have been formed. 

The second aim is that by 2035, Shanxi will have a forest coverage rate exceeding 30 percent and a forest volume of 195 million cu m. The grassland comprehensive vegetation coverage and wetlands' protection rate will reach 74.5 percent and 60 percent, respectively.

In addition, over 75 percent of the governable sandy land in the province will have been treated by then and a system of nature reserves with national parks as the focus will be established.

As a result, Shanxi's forestry governance capabilities and levels will be greatly improved and the supply of organic products will be increased.

In recent years, Shanxi has seen its environment significantly enhanced as it implemented ecosystem conservation and restoration projects -- focusing on the local Taihang Mountains and Lyuliang Mountains -- and promoted forestry and grassland ecological development. 

However, that the challenges posed by a lack of forests, a fragile ecology and a shortage of green products had not yet been fundamentally altered. 

To this end, the province will strictly enforce its ecological protection system, strengthen disaster prevention and control, increase the greening of land, improve the quality of forests, deepen reforms and innovation and strengthen forest resource regulations.