BEIJING — China has made strides in boosting forest cover amid its national greening campaign, fulfilling 65.8 percent of its annual afforestation target in the first half of the year, official data shows.

File photo by CFP

As of the end of June, the country added 66.46 million mu (about 4.43 million hectares) to its total afforested area, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Region-specific data shows that the provinces of Jilin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Henan, as well as Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, have accomplished their annual afforestation targets, while another 18 provincial regions have fulfilled more than half of their annual tasks.

Some 436 million people, or nearly one third of the total population, took part in tree-planting activities in the first half of the year, planting a total of 1.69 billion trees.

China plans to increase afforested areas by 6.7 million hectares by the end of this year, in order to fulfill a long-term afforestation plan of increasing the forest coverage rate to 23.04 percent by 2020, and to 26 percent by 2035.