China is intensifying efforts to plant trees nationwide as it strives to honor 
its pledges to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 
2060. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials have taken the lead in 
afforestation. When attending a tree-planting activity in Beijing on Wednesday, 
Xi said forests have the capacity to conserve water, bring in economic 
benefits, boost grain production, and also serve well as a carbon sink. 

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central 
Committee, has participated in tree-planting activities for 10 consecutive 
years since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

'Sow seeds of ecological conservation'

China designated March 12 as the National Tree-Planting Day in 1979. The 
National People's Congress, China's top legislature, launched a nationwide 
voluntary tree-planting campaign in 1981, stipulating that every able-bodied 
citizen above 11 should plant three to five trees each year. 

"I want to do my bit for the Beautiful China initiative, and also to sow the 
seeds of ecological conservation in the entire society, among Chinese youth in 
particular," Xi said during this year's activity at an urban recreation park in 
Huangcun Town in Beijing's Daxing District. 

He planted saplings of Chinese pine, flowering peach, magnolia, crab apple and 
Chinese ash.

"With perseverance and accumulated efforts, we will be able to make our 
country's sky bluer, mountains lusher, waters clearer and the environment more 
beautiful," he said. 

Describing forests as a "carbon sink," Xi said forests and grasslands are of 
fundamental and strategic significance for the country's ecological security. 

He called for prioritizing ecological conservation and pursuing green 
development with a "holistic approach." 

"We will protect and manage our ecosystems involving mountains, rivers, 
forests, farmland, lakes, grasslands and deserts with a holistic approach, 
carry out greening programs systematically, and increase both quantity and 
quality of forest and grassland resources," he said.

Forests' role in carbon reduction

"Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," a notion raised by Xi, 
has become a guiding principle in China's ecological conservation endeavors. 

In recent years, China made pledges to peak emissions of carbon dioxide before 
2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. It also vows to advance the 
green transformation of the social and economic development, according to the 
14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and long-range objectives through 2035, the 
country's latest development blueprint.

Afforestation plays a crucial role in turning these ideas into reality, as 
carbon sinks, like forests and grasslands, absorb and store carbon dioxide from 
the atmosphere. 

China's forest coverage and forest reserves have both maintained growth for the 
last 30 years, and the country has realized the largest growth in forest 
resources among all countries, according to China's white paper on biodiversity 
conservation released last October. 

At the end of 2020, China's forest area stood at 220 million hectares, with a 
forest coverage rate of 23 percent, and a forest carbon storage of 9.19 billion 
tonnes, according to the white paper. 

In 2021, China planted 3.6 million hectares of forest and converted 380,800 
hectares of farmland into forest, the National Forestry and Grassland 
Administration said in a bulletin on March 11. The country plans to plant 6.4 
million hectares of trees and grass this year. 

To support the increase of carbon sink capacity in the forestry sector, China 
Development Bank recently issued loans worth about 114.1 billion yuan (around 
$17.95 billion) to promote key ecological areas such as the national reserve 
forest construction and forest quality improvements. 

The bank, one of the country's primary policy banks, has supported the 
cultivation and maintenance of forests covering nearly four million hectares, 
which are expected to absorb 72 million tonnes of carbon per year after 2030.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-03-31/China-steps-up-tree-planting-efforts-to-reduce-carbon-emissions-18QrTqA6rHq/index.html


Source: CGTN