The Greening of China

Planting trees has become a nationwide effort. CFP

In China’s northwestern province of Gansu, home to JiayuPass, is the west-ern reach of the Great Wall and aboundless desert. Not long ago, on either side of the 50-kilometer highway running from the Lanzhou airport to downtown were loess hills, covered with nothing more than dry yellow earth.

Revisiting the region in the summer of 2006, driving past those once bare slopes, this writer was thrilled to see poplar trees, their verdurous leaves swaying in the wind. It was as if the hills extending along either side of the highway were paved with green carpet.

Because underground water is not available even dozens of meters below the loess hills, plants can barely survive. On December 13, 1981, thanks to a proposal put forth by Deng Xiaoping, the Fourth Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress passed the Resolution on Launching a National Compulsory Tree-Planting Campaign, thus heralding a new chapter in Chinese afforestation. Twenty-five years have passed, remarkable achievements have been realized and these have contributed to today’s expanding green landscape.

Recently compiled government statistics reveal several promising trends. The total forest coverage in the Changjiang (Yangtze) RiverValley is now 30.53 percent, and the rate of soil erosion is steadily decreasing. For the first time in five decades, desertification is reversing. And due to the development of man-made sustainable forests producing non-timber products like fruits, oils, and herbs, forestry has become a viable industry for farmers.

According to Jia Zhibang, director of the State Forestry Administration, 47.11 billion trees have been planted across the country, the cumulate reserve area of man-made forests has topped 53 million hectares, the forest coverage rate has soared from 12 percent in the early 1980s to 18.21 percent today, and great progress has been made in the protection of wildlife and wetlands, as well as in the control of desertification.

The Global Forest Resources Assessment issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations now ranks China fifth in the world in the total area of forest coverage.

The tessellation of forests in the plains has effectively prevented desertification. CFP

Plain Afforestation

Making up 15 percent of the nation’s total area, and 45 percent of the arable land, and home to 50 percent of the nation’s population, there are 10 large plains and semi-plains in China, and therein are the 918 counties of 26 provinces. The total plain area includes the fertile earth in the northeast, which produces reddish sorghum and yellow soybeans, and the vast plains in North China, which produce golden wheat and silver-like cotton. Since China launched the “Plain Afforestation” project in 1988, hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens have dedicated their labor to excavate irrigation trenches, flatten dikes, and afforest the plains.

According to the fourth survey on national forest resources, the national area of afforestated land and the area of forest land have surpassed 262.89 million hectares and 133.7 million hectares, respectively; and the standing forest stock and the forest reserves have topped 11.7 billion cubic meters and 10.1 billion cubic meters, respectively, registering a dramatic expansion both in forest area and forest reserves. Of the 918 counties, 829 have reached the afforestation goal set by the Ministry of Forestry. Nine of the 26 provinces and municipalities, including Shanxi, Henan, and Beijing, have reached their afforestation standards. Overall, radically positive changes have taken place in the eco-environment of China’s plain areas.

In the northeastern region of China, plants along a stretch of desert highway prevent the encroachment of sand. Xinhua

Deterring Desertification

Land desertification is a common problem faced by nations across the globe, and the environmental issue is especially serious in China.

Nine years ago, a project aiming to prevent and deter desertation was launched. The project focuses on the wind and sand belts in the northwestern, northern, and northeastern regions. The primary mission is the protection and expansion of vegetation, and tactical objectives include the establishment of an ecosystem that combines prevention, control, and utilization of sand, as well as a sand industry system. Thanks to nine years of concerted effort, some 5.4 million hectares of sandy land has been controlled and developed, and China’s total afforestation area for sand prevention and control has risen to more than 10 million hectares. A representative example within this project is the “Wind and Sand Source Control around Beijing and TianjinMunicipalities.” According to statistics presented by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), after the program for “Wind and Sand Source Control around Beijing and TianjinMunicipalities” was launched in 2000, investment in the “desertification prevention” project as a whole totaled 18.5 billion yuan, amounting to more than half of the total planned by the state. To date, 75 counties have been involved in the project, each being allocated an average capital of 247 million yuan. According to Du Ying, deputy director of the NDRC, the 400,000-square-kilometer peripheral area of Beijing and Tianjin is the transition zone between the sand source and the two cities, and after the implementation of the program for “Wind and Sand Source Control around Beijing and Tianjin,” the average sand storm intensity and frequency in this area has exhibited a decreasing trend.

In northern ShanxiProvince, just several years ago the gusting winter winds could lift people off their feet. Today, as a result of implemented controls of wind and sand around Beijing and Tianjin, citizens no longer must endure such heavy wind and sand storms. Since 2000, pursuant the general deployment of the state and the province, all the 13 counties and the two state-owned forestry administrative bureaus in northern Shanxi have made plans for harnessing 532,000 hectares of sandy land and arable slopes, and to date, with a cumulate investment of 900 million yuan, that goal has been largely achieved. Nearly 2.5 million local farmers have participated in this extensive ecological construction project, characterized by converting farmland to forest and the planting of trees and grass.

According to Du Ying, there are three routes for the intrusion of China’s blowing sands: eastern, central and western routes. To date, the program for “Wind and Sand Source Control around Beijing and Tianjin” covers merely the eastern and part of the central routes, so the project is ongoing. Relevant data reveals that about 10 percent of the desertified land in China has been primarily controlled.

A “Green Ambassador” at a tree-planting festival.  CFP

Bringing Green to the Barrens

According to the Construction Bureau of the Three-NorthShelterForest under the State Forestry Administration, after 28 years of painstaking efforts in the Three-North Shelter Forest Project, a green “Great Wall” has been developed, running 4,480 kilometers from east to west.

The northwestern, northern, and northeastern regions (collectively known as “Three-North” area) are China’s most seriously desertificated areas and have long been regarded as the focus of the national ecological construction. The Three-North Shelter Forest Project, begun in 1978, involves 551 counties in 13 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. These range from HeilongjiangProvince in the east to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the west, comprising a total area of 4.07 million square kilometers, accounting for 42.4 percent of the national land. It is the largest “green project” undertaken since the People’s Republic was founded in 1949.

To date, the project has afforested a total area of 25.07 million hectares and basically established a shelter forest system that combines trees, shrubs, and grass planted within a belt and patch-like installation. Thanks to this project, more than 20 percent of the desertification lands in the “Three-North” area have been afforested, more than 40 percent of the soil-erosion area has been effectively controlled, and two-thirds of the plain farming areas have been developed with shelter forests, protecting 20 million hectares of farmlands. In addition, more than 1 million hectares of water-source conservation forests, 921,000 hectares of wood fuel forests, and nearly 5 million hectares of economic forests have been constructed in the “Three-North” area.

At present, 12 provinces and autonomous regions, including Guangdong, Hainan, Anhui, and Jilin, have fundamentally converted once barren hills for afforestation, evidencing an 8 percent increase in forest coverage. Currently, there are only two countries in the world in which the area of newly increased forests surpasses that of the vanishing forests. One of those is China.

To seek substitute resources, China has attached great importance to the planting of bamboo. After a two-decade effort, China’s present area of bamboo groves has reached 3.79 million hectares. The vast expanses of bamboo forests have turned green the barren hills, added green to the plains, and brought wealth to local citizens.

Meanwhile, the planting of forests has developed rapidly throughout China. It is expected that by 2020, the nation’s forest coverage will reach 23 percent, and man-made forested areas will top 53 million hectares to rank first in the world.

An environmentally-friendly house. Xinhua

Six Forestry Projects

The catastrophic flooding along the Changjiang (Yangtze) RiverValley and northeastern regions in 1998 was a potent reminder of the negative effects of human-inflicted ecological damage. After that natural disaster, the Chinese government ordered an end to the cutting of natural forests in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow RiverValleys. After two years of practice, in October 2000 the state government formally launched the Project for Protecting Natural Forest Resources.

Since that effort began, the market-oriented cutting of natural forests in the entire Yangtze and Yellow RiverValleys has been completely prohibited, and the state-owned forestry farms in the northeastern region and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have reduced timber production by a large margin. Thanks to this project, China’s forest resources have entered a stage of rapid growth, and the nation has benefited ecologically.

In 2003, the forest area in the 44 pilot counties for the Project for Protecting Natural Forest Resources evidenced a 10.15 percent increase over 1997, with an annual growth rate of 3.07 percentage points in forest coverage. Along with the increase of forest resources, the overall ecological environment has improved. In 2005, the volume of water erosion in the Yangtze RiverValley was about 50 percent the average of previous years, and erosion in the Yellow RiverValley was lower than the average of previous years by 30 percent. In some areas, water reappeared in dried river sources and spring heads, and precipitation and humidity greatly increased.

Another project, “Converting Farmland to Forest,” is targeted to solve the water erosion problem by planting trees on slope farmlands and desertificated farmlands. In 1999, according to the policies of “converting farmland to forest, closing mountains for greening, providing grain as relief and making contracts with individuals,” Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu took the lead as pilot provinces. In 2002, the project was fully implemented throughout the country.

To date, the state government has invested more than 103 billion yuan in the conversion of 23 million hectares of farmland to forests. The implementation of this project has greatly increased China’s afforestation area. In 2004 the afforestated area attributed to the project amounted to 54 percent of the nation’s total.

Collateral programs include: The project for the construction of important shelter forests in “Three-North” area and the middle and lower reaches area of the Yangtze River; the project for the protection of wildlife and the construction of nature reserves; and the project for the construction of high-yield, fast-growing timber forest bases in key areas. Along with the project for “Wind and Sand Source Control Around Beijing and TianjinMunicipalities,” these programs are collectively known as the “Six Important Forestry Projects.” Begun in 1998, the project for the construction of high-yield, fast-growing timber forest bases, with a total investment running into the hundreds of billions of yuan, is expected to cover at least 97 percent of all the counties across the country, and play an important role in environmental improvement and the increase of the timber reserve.

Although China now ranks fifth in the world in total forested area, we should be aware that the nation’s total volume of forestry resources and the per capita forested area are still lacking. As Deng Xiaoping pointed out, afforestation is a great cause for building the country and bringing benefit to descendants, and that cause warrants perpetual persistence.

It is this writer’s view that in the near future, besides the green belts along the airport highway in Lanzhou, green mountains and clear waters will reappear in the vast hinterland of the Loess Plateau.

Planting a sapling in honor of their marriage. CFP		A green city prospers. CFP