BEIJING — Vice-Premier Wang Yang on Dec 11 stressed the importance of forest protection in state-owned forest farms, as the country steers to a green development path.

“Forest resource supervision should be improved, and forest farms should transform their development pattern,” Wang said at a meeting in Beijing.

China is pushing forward reforms in state-owned forest farms, with measures to halt commercial logging, streamline management systems and ensure the placement of employees made redundant.

Official guidelines were released more than two years ago to increase the area of state-owned forest by more than 360,000 hectares in 2020, and add the growing stock by 400 million cubic meters.

Wang said the reforms were significant to safeguard ecological security and build a “Beautiful China”.

China has more than 4,800 state-owned forest farms, which account for one-sixth of its forestry area and one-quarter of its forest growing stock.