YANGON, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will implement a 10-year plan of reforestation and rehabilitation of its forest across the country, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.
The project will cover 32,400-40,500 hectares a year including establishing forest, nurseries and replanting of trees in forest reserve areas, the Forest Department was quoted as saying.
The 10-year project, which will also include training courses for forest staff and local residents, will be revised after five years of implementation, forest department officials said.
Myanmar is one of the most resource-rich countries in Southeast Asia. However, statistics show that forest coverage in Myanmar dropped to 42.92 percent over the years from over 57 percent in 1990.
Northwestern Sagaing region suffers the worst from illegal forest exploitation which is also found in Kachin and Shan states and Bago region.
The country has restricted wood log export, and encouraged more export of value-added wood products since 2014.
In addition to suspension of logging at the Bago Yoma mountain range for 10 years, one of the largest forests in Myanmar, the government announced in April 2016 to continue to halt logging across the country's forest in the fiscal year 2016-17.
However, the announcement added that it allows resumption of limited timber production in the present fiscal year 2017-18.
