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Published: August 17,2023
By staff writer
China accounts for nearly one quarter of the world’s new forest area making the country the first in the land area of planted forests. Large-scale greening campaign has been carried out, including conserving existing ecosystems, adding new forests, grasslands and wetlands, and fighting desertification.
While marking China’s first National Ecology Day, Chinese president Xi Jinping , emphasized the need to maintain strategic resolve to advance ecological progress and called on the whole society to vigorously promote and act as role models in ecological conservation. Celebrating the day is expected to enhance public awareness and actions to protect the ecological environment.
The Ecology Day was held on Tuesday in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, where the Chinese president first put forward the concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” during an inspection tour in 2005 of Yucun, a village in Anji county of Huzhou.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, decided at a session in June to designate Aug 15 as National Ecology Day to promote the construction of an ecological civilization. Ecological conservation as “a major political issue” that concerns the mission and purpose of the CPC as well as “a major social issue” that bears on the well-being of the public, the Chinese president emphasized.
Xi, said that efforts should be made to maintain strategic resolve to advance ecological progress on the new journey of building China into a modern socialist country in all respects, urging efforts to enhance environmental protection while promoting high-quality development.
According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the accumulative afforestation area reached 64 million hectares over the past 10 years, while 11 million hectares of grassland were improved and more than 800,000 hectares of wetlands were added or restored.
From the tree planting programmes to the world’s largest artificial plantation, the Saihanba mechanised forest farm, China has been striving to build a “Green Great Wall” to protect the ecological environment.
China designated March 12 as National Tree Planting Day in 1979, and Chinese citizens have voluntarily planted approximately 78.1 billion trees across the country between 1982 and 2021, according to official data.
China is expected to continue efforts to promote green development, with a target of increasing the forest cover to 26 per cent by 2035 and becoming a leading country in forestry by 2050.
Efforts to expand China’s forest area and improve forest quality have increased the ecosystem’s carbon sink, contributing to achieving the country’s target of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.
ranks first globally in the land area of planted forests and forest coverage growth, contributing one-fourth of the world’s new forest area in the past dec
The secret behind the rapid ade. growth of China’s green landscape lies in its large-scale greening campaign, including conserving existing ecosystems, adding new forests, grasslands and wetlands, and fighting desertification.
According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the accumulative afforestation area reached 64 million hectares over the past 10 years, while 11 million hectares of grassland were improved and more than 800,000 hectares of wetlands were added or restored.
From the tree planting programmes to the world’s largest artificial plantation, the Saihanba mechanised forest farm, China has been striving
Safeguard environment while promoting high-quality development, president says
President Xi Jinping emphasized the need to maintain strategic resolve to advance ecological progress while calling on the whole society to vigorously promote and act as role models in practicing the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.
Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in instructions released on Tuesday, China’s first National Ecology Day.
He said efforts should be made to maintain strategic resolve to advance ecological progress on the new journey of building China into a modern socialist country in all respects, urging efforts to enhance environmental protection while promoting high-quality development.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, decided at a session in June to designate Aug 15 as National Ecology Day to promote the construction of an ecological civilization.
In his instructions, Xi said that ecological conservation is of vital importance for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.
He described ecological conservation as “a major political issue” that concerns the mission and purpose of the CPC as well as “a major social issue” that bears on the well-being of the public.
With a focus on achieving the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the country should facilitate the gradual transition from dual control over the amount and intensity of energy consumption to dual control over the amount and intensity of carbon emissions, he said.
Xi urged consistent efforts to promote the transition toward green and low-carbon production methods and lifestyles, accelerate the advancement of modernization featuring harmony between humans and nature, and build a Beautiful China in all respects.
He called for concrete and constant efforts throughout society to make greater contributions to jointly build a clean and beautiful world.
An event to mark National Ecology Day was held on Tuesday in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, the place where Xi first put forward the concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” during an inspection tour in 2005 of Yucun, a village in Anji county of Huzhou.
Xi’s instructions were conveyed by Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, at the opening ceremony of the event.
Md Qumruzzaman Chowdhury, a professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in Bangladesh, told Xinhua News Agency that China’s National Ecology Day will enhance public awareness and actions to protect the ecological environment.
China’s successful efforts to build an ecological civilization have come as a big boon to the global green agenda amid climatic shocks worldwide, Chowdhury said.
“Successful implementation of the ecological renewal model in China now offers great lessons to the countries and regions striving to restore degraded habitats and strengthen the resilience of communities vulnerable to climate-induced calamities,” he added.
China leads globally in planted forest area
October 6, 2022
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XINHUA – China ranks first globally in the land area of planted forests and forest coverage growth, contributing one-fourth of the world’s new forest area in the past dec
The secret behind the rapid ade. growth of China’s green landscape lies in its large-scale greening campaign, including conserving existing ecosystems, adding new forests, grasslands and wetlands, and fighting desertification.
According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the accumulative afforestation area reached 64 million hectares over the past 10 years, while 11 million hectares of grassland were improved and more than 800,000 hectares of wetlands were added or restored.
From the tree planting programmes to the world’s largest artificial plantation, the Saihanba mechanised forest farm, China has been striving to build a “Green Great Wall” to protect the ecological environment.
China designated March 12 as National Tree Planting Day in 1979, and Chinese citizens have voluntarily planted approximately 78.1 billion trees across the country between 1982 and 2021, according to official data.
Saihanba forest farm in North China’s Hebei province. PHOTO: XINHUA
The COVID-19 epidemic did not keep cities from planting trees. Some instructed volunteers to keep “a safe distance” when planting trees, while others assembled small groups of volunteers to plant trees on behalf of hundreds of public-spirited residents.
Besides the offline planting activities, the country’s Internet-based greening campaign known as Ant Forest allows residents to adopt trees by making contributions online or garnering enough credits by performing low-carbon activities like taking public transportation, in exchange for a real tree being nurtured in their names.
By the end of May, more than 550 million people had participated in the project to plant over 200 million trees, reducing via low-carbon activities the equivalent of 12 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
In recent years, China has also built a protected-area system with national parks as the mainstay, supplemented by nature reserves and nature parks.
Saihanba in northern China was once an imperial hunting ground and degraded into an area of barren wilderness. Thanks to consistent efforts by three generations of Saihanba foresters, it has now become a national forest park and nature reserve, with a total forest landscape of nearly 77,000 hectares.
In addition, the restoration of mangrove wetlands in the coastal area of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, provides a carbon sink and ensures that the total area of mangroves will gradually expand, reversing the trend of ecological degradation of the mangrove wetland system. Carbon sinks are things such as plants, oceans or soil that absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release.
China’s efforts to expand its forest area and improve forest quality have increased the ecosystem’s carbon sink, contributing to achieving the country’s target of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.
China is expected to continue to blaze an eco-friendly trail for the world’s green development, with the aim of increasing the forest cover to 26 per cent by 2035 and becoming a leading country in forestry by 2050.
