YANGON, April 28 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar government and private sector will cooperate in their efforts for reforestation to fight gradual deforestation in the country, official media reported on Friday.
The government's Forestry Department under Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation will grow 36,000 acres (14,580 hectares) of forest plantations per year starting from this 2017-2018 fiscal year, while the private sector will plant 28,000 acres per year.
The growing of forest plantations by the government and the private sector is intended to produce over 2 million acres of forest over the next 10 years.
Myanmar is one of most resource-rich countries in Southeast Asia. However, statistics show that forest coverage in Myanmar dropped to 42.92 percent in 2015 from over 57 percent in 1990.
The country has restricted wood logs export to encourage more export of value-added wood products since 2014.
