HOHHOT, March 6 (Xinhua) -- North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will green over 1.8 million hectares of land with trees and grass this year to strengthen its afforestation efforts, said the region's forestry and grassland administration Friday.

A total of 864,700 hectares of trees and 1 million hectares of grass will be planted this year, the administration said.

The region will also carry out an investigation into the current grassland ecology and come out with a related protection plan, said Mu Yuan, head of the administration.

The region has some 88 million hectares of grasslands, accounting for one-fifth of the country's total. It has afforested over 600,000 hectares of land every year, which accounted for one-ninth of the country's total ecological construction task in recent years.

(Photo: VCG)