PR95287

BEIJING, April 1, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

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