HOHHOT — North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region plans to raise its forest coverage to 23.5 percent and record a forest stock volume of 1.55 billion cubic meters in 2025.

The region's forestry and grassland administration announced the goals at a press conference held on Aug 31.

In the next five years, the region is expected to afforest more than 2.86 million hectares of land and plant over 4.3 million hectares of grass to raise its grassland vegetation coverage to about 45 percent.

Meanwhile, it will promote the construction of a protected natural area system with several national parks as the main body.

Inner Mongolia spans the vast northern territory of China and is an important ecological barrier in the country. In recent years, the region afforested over 600,000 hectares of land annually.