LONDON, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- More than 10 million trees will be planted across England, where tree-planting record is poor compared with other European countries, as part of the British government's "drive to preserve the country's greenery," local media reported Monday.
The plan will be carried out with the injection of 60 million pounds (76.78 million U.S. dollars) of new funding over five years.
The bulk of the fund, or 50 million pounds (63.98 million dollars), is to be used to pay landowners for planting trees that lock up carbon. This amount of money should pay for 10 million trees.
The other 10 million pounds (12.80 million dollars) will be used to finance tree planting in cities and towns and should fund at least 100,000 more trees.
The British government said it would also back a study into the possibility of creating a new "Great Thames Park" in the Thames estuary, which experts have said could be ready by 2020.
British ministers have pledged to plant 11 million trees between 2017 and 2022, approximately the same number that were planted under the five years of the coalition.
About 1.6 million trees were planted in England with government support in the 2017-18 financial year, covering 895 hectares. By comparison, Scotland planted 7,100 hectares in the same period.
