About 1.54 million ha of Eucalyptus plantations have been set up in Guangdong, Hainan, Yunnan and Fujian provinces and in the Guangxi region. Their productivity has been about 5-10 m~3 ha~(-1) yr~(-1), much lower than in some other countries such as Brazil where growth rates as high as 100 m~3 ha~(-1) yr~(-1) have been recorded. One reason is that superior species, provenances, families and clones of Eucalyptus have not been planted on a large scale. This paper briefly outlines the steps taken for introduction of new lines of Eucalyptus and genetic improvement in several internationally supported projects. As a result, the general productivity of plantations has increased significantly in the past 10 years to about 20-25 m~3 ha~(-1) yr~(-1), and has reached as high as 60 m~3 ha~(-1) yr~(-1).
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