Nationwide afforestation increased to 6.01 million hectares in 2012, the country's forestry authority said on Monday.

According to the 2012 report on national afforestation by the State Forestry Administration, the key forestry projects completed 2.74 million hectares of afforestation area, including 520,000 hectares of natural forest protection, 590,000 hectares of returning farmland to forest afforestation, 540,000 hectares of Beijing and Tianjin sandstorm source control project and 1.09 million hectares of shelterbelt construction project in the Yangtze River and other key protection areas.

Voluntary tree planting increased to 157,000 strains, which is in excess of 57 percent to complete the task.

Zhao Shucong, head of the administration, said that the government would rely more on social forces to speed up the pace of greening and strengthening the protection of ecology and bio-diversity.

"We would also apply the latest technology into the greening project," Zhao said.

China has taken a leading global role in forestry. In the past decade, annual growth of forest has grown by more than 4 million hectares.

By 2020, China plans to add 40 million hectares of forest and 1.3 billion cubic meter of forest stock volume through reforestation and strengthening management of existing forests, compared with the 2005 level.