China's 2016 forestry sector output hits $930b

Children have fun in a forest in Yiyuan county, Shandong province on May 4, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

FUZHOU - China's forestry sector saw its output rise to 6.4 trillion yuan (about $930 billion) last year, up from 5.9 trillion yuan in 2015, according to a national conference on forestry Thursday.

China has become the world's biggest producer, trader and consumer of forest-related products, with foreign trade in the forestry sector standing at $136 billion in 2016, according to the conference.

Output of the forestry sector grew from 409 billion yuan in 2001 to 6.4 trillion yuan in 2016, more than a 15-fold increase in 16 years.

Forest tourism has become a strong driver of the sector's growth, with some 9,000 forest-based destinations accommodating 1.2 billion trips in 2016, an increase of 15 percent year on year.

China's central government has also invested 335 million yuan in national forest parks and a total of 21 new national forest parks have opened in the past year.

China aims to bring its forestry sector output to 7 trillion yuan by 2017 and 9 trillion yuan by 2020.