KUNMING — The forest coverage rate in Southwest China's Yunnan province rose to 65.04 percent in 2020, as its total forest area increased by 3.27 million hectares to 28.27 million hectares over the last five years, authorities said.

From 2016 to 2020, the province's afforestation efforts raised its forest stock volume to 2.07 billion cubic meters from 1.77 billion cubic meters, said Ren Zhizhong, head of the provincial bureau of forestry and grassland.

During the same period, Yunnan also restored degraded grassland by 273,333 hectares and returned some 158,800 hectares of grazing land to grassland, Ren said.

"In the past five years, the forest and grass resources in Yunnan have reached to a new level in both quantity and quality, laying a solid foundation for building an ecological security barrier in Southwest China," he said.