China says it is launching a long-term project to combat environmental damage in the valleys of its two largest rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow River, as well as in the remote north-west and south-west of the country. The scheme announced by China's ministry of forestry envisages the planting of 26 million hectares of forest by the year 2030 as part of a plan to stop severe water and soil erosion caused partly by rapid economic development. From Beijing, Duncan Hewitt reports:

The director of planning at China's Forestry Ministry, Lei Jia Fu, was quoted in the official China Daily newspaper as saying that the massive ecological protection scheme would cost as much as $27bn over a 33-year period. Its aim is to combat water and soil erosion which reportedly affect at least forty percent of the valleys and the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

The two river valleys in total account for an estimated one-quarter of China's land mass, but they have been severely affected by climate change and by the impact of rapid industrial development. A pilot programme of reafforestation is due to begin in selected areas this year, with the target of bringing 60% of the erosion under control by the year 2030.

China has already started a series of afforestation projects, but Mr Lei said the new scheme was different in that the majority of the funding would be met by the central government, rather than by local authorities or farmers themselves. Yet the task is a huge one.