The government has allocated more than 400 billion yuan (around 65 billion U.S. dollars) to projects returning farmland to forest since 1999, it said on Friday.

Around 139 million mu (9.3 million hectares) of farmland has been converted to forest since the government launched a national campaign in 1999. Around 309 million mu of hillside was closed to facilitate afforestation during the period, according to an announcement by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) at a meeting in Guiyang City.

Some 124 million farmers across 25 provinces and cities received subsidies after they agreed to have their farmland turned into forest, according to the NDRC.

A survey by the State Forestry Administration last year revealed that China had 208 million hectares of forest, covering 21.6 percent of the country, up 1.3 percentage points from five years before. Endi

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