Yes, China lost a lot of tons of vegetables and crops in the wake of mega snowstorms. Also gone are slowly recovered forests, says China Daily:
About 18.6 million hectares of forests were destroyed or damaged – it is equal to one-tenth of the country’s green cover, or the area afforestated between 2004 and 2006. The direct loss to the forestry sector totaled 57.3 billion yuan ($8 billion), SFA officials said.
“The damage to forest resources will have a negative impact on China’s ecology,” Zhu Lieke, SFA deputy director, told a press conference in Beijing Tuesday.
The disaster will make it difficult for China to meet its green plan of raising its total forest cover to 20 percent of its land area by 2010.
