Govt says nation's forests in need of attention

China's forest coverage and stock volume still lag far behind global averages despite the country's efforts in forest planning, a top forestry official said on Tuesday.

Zhao Shucong, director of the State Forestry Administration, made the remarks at a news conference in Beijing while citing the recently finished eighth National Forest Inventory.

The results of the inventory, which began in 2009 and concluded in 2013, showed that the nation's forest coverage is 21.63 percent, or 208 million hectares, with stock volume reaching 89.79 cubic meters per hectare.