2023 China National Land Greening Status Bulletin: A total of 1.905 million hectares of desertification and rocky desertification land have been controlled nationwide

The 2023 China National Land Greening Status Bulletin shows that throughout 2023, the country completed 3.998 million hectares of afforestation, 4.379 million hectares of grass planting and improvement, and 1.905 million hectares of desertification and rocky desertification control. In 2023, the national land greening action was solidly carried out, organizing and implementing 96 "dual" engineering projects and 25 national land greening pilot demonstration projects. We will carry out pilot and demonstration provinces for scientific greening in six provinces, including Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Ningxia. Continuously promote the integrated protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, and sands, as well as the construction of ecological restoration demonstration projects for historical abandoned mines.

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2023 China National Land Greening Status Bulletin

Office of the National Greening Committee

(March 12, 2024)

  Throughout the year, 3.998 million hectares of afforestation, 4.379 million hectares of grass planting and improvement, and 1.905 million hectares of desertification and rocky desertification land were managed nationwide.

1、 Deepening the Promotion of National Compulsory Tree Planting

    Planting trees and afforestation is a very meaningful thing, a noble cause that has contributed to the present and benefited the future. It should be consistently and continuously pursued. Carrying out nationwide voluntary tree planting is a vivid practice of promoting national greening and building a beautiful China. Each region and department should organize and carry out voluntary tree planting based on their actual situation. We need to innovate organizational methods, enrich forms of accountability, and provide more convenience for the public to participate in voluntary tree planting, achieving "full year accountability, diverse accountability, and convenient accountability.".

Leaders of the National People's Congress, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and the Central Military Commission collectively participated in voluntary tree planting activities. The 22nd Republic Minister's Obligatory Tree Planting Event was held in Beijing, and 140 ministerial level leaders fulfilled their responsibilities through tree planting and nurturing. We continued to promote the "Internet plus for all people to plant trees". More than 24000 conscientious activities were launched online throughout the year, with nearly 440 million visits to online platforms. More than 1500 bases of "Internet plus for all people to plant trees" were built, initially realizing diversified forms of conscientious work and convenient public participation. Central and state officials and staff took the lead in fulfilling their responsibilities, with a total of 83000 participants. The Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission has issued a notice to organize military officers and soldiers to participate in afforestation and greening at the base.

31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps organized provincial-level collective voluntary tree planting activities. Innovative practices have been achieved in Beijing, Guangdong, Hebei, Hunan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Fujian and other regions, with significant results. Beijing and other places are building four season responsible brands, actively promoting voluntary tree planting in communities and villages. Guangdong and other regions will organically connect compulsory tree planting with overall greening, rural greening, protection of ancient and famous trees, and the creation of forest cities, and promote them as a whole. During the 3.12 Arbor Day in Hunan and other places, the main leaders of the provincial party committee and government jointly published signed articles calling on the whole society to participate in voluntary tree planting. Anhui and other regions will fully leverage the exemplary and leading role of forest chiefs at all levels, and include the implementation of compulsory tree planting in the annual assessment of provincial forest chiefs.

2、 The comprehensive launch of the Three North Project campaign

    We must bravely shoulder our mission, not be afraid of hardships, and work hard for a long time to create a new miracle in China's sand prevention and control in the new era. We must build a more solid green barrier of thousands of miles in the northern region of our motherland, and achieve greater success in building a beautiful China.

The General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council have issued the Opinions on Strengthening Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Desertification and Promoting the Construction of Key Ecological Projects such as the "Three North". The State Council established a coordination mechanism to strengthen the comprehensive prevention and control of desertification and promote the construction of key ecological projects such as the "Three North", and held the first plenary meeting to issue the "1+N+X" work plan. Revised the overall plan of the Three North Project, issued the Sixth Phase Plan of the Three North Project, and planned the layout of 68 key projects. On site promotion meetings were held in Changwu, Liaoning, Bayannur, Inner Mongolia, and Minqin, Gansu to comprehensively launch and implement the three iconic campaigns. Establish the Three North Engineering Research Institute and launch seven major actions to support science and technology. The Central Finance Office, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Water Resources and other departments are working together to promote the resolution of issues related to ensuring the use of money and water. The National Development and Reform Commission and the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council are studying and promoting the participation of central enterprises in the construction of the Three North Project. The people's governments of 12 provinces (regions) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have signed the "14th Five Year Plan" for sand prevention and control responsibility. As of the end of 2023, 22 projects have started construction in the three iconic campaign areas, completing 1.223 million hectares of afforestation and grass planting, and achieving a good start in the battle against the Three North Project. Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang provinces have achieved outstanding results.

3、 Solid implementation of national greening actions

The State Council has adjusted the establishment of the National Greening Committee and held its first plenary session to deploy current and future land greening work. Organize and implement 96 "dual" engineering projects and 25 national land greening pilot demonstration projects. We will carry out pilot and demonstration provinces for scientific greening in six provinces, including Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Ningxia. Continuously promote the integrated protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, and sands, as well as the construction of ecological restoration demonstration projects for historical abandoned mines. An additional 63000 square kilometers of soil erosion control area has been added, and 505 ecological clean small watersheds have been constructed. Effectively protecting 172 million hectares of natural forest resources and completing 1.059 million hectares of forest nurturing tasks. We have completed a pilot project for sustainable forest management covering 181000 hectares and launched a pilot project for forestry carbon sequestration. We will build 564000 hectares of national reserve forests and deploy measures to improve the quality and efficiency of returning farmland to forests and grasslands. Arrange the construction of 20000 hectares of grass seed breeding bases and complete the first batch of grassland health and degradation assessment work in 11 provinces and regions. 19 provincial-level plans for desertification prevention and control have been approved, and 5 new protected areas for desertification land have been constructed, with a total protected area of 1.805 million hectares. The "Three Year Action Plan for Revitalizing the Forestry and Grass Seed Industry (2023-2025)" has been issued, adding 56 provincial-level local tree species collection bases and constructing 671 guaranteed nurseries. The utilization rate of high-quality afforestation tree species has reached 65%. Based on the implementation of national spatial planning, clarify the afforestation and greening space, and properly handle the relationship between farmland protection and ecological construction. Throughout the year, 3.998 million hectares of afforestation were completed, including 1.334 million hectares of artificial afforestation, 66000 hectares of aerial seeding afforestation, 1.073 million hectares of closed mountain afforestation, and 1.525 million hectares of degraded forest restoration. 4.379 million hectares of grassland improvement have been completed, including 1.054 million hectares of artificial grass planting and 3.325 million hectares of grassland improvement.

Guangdong Province has fully implemented the "Six Actions" to promote green and beautiful Guangdong, laying a solid ecological foundation for high-quality development. Zhejiang Province has released an ecological corridor protection and construction plan, promoting the precise improvement of the quality of millions of acres of forests with high quality. Fujian Province has issued a provincial-level land greening plan, providing a timetable and roadmap for scientific promotion of land greening. Shandong Province is focusing on promoting the construction of green spots, green belts, and green networks along the Yellow River, and building a "one corridor, three sections, multiple lines, and multiple points" green corridor pattern along the Yellow River. Sichuan Province has launched the construction of the "Tianfu Forest Four Banks" to accelerate the transformation of ecological value. Yunnan Province is coordinating the promotion of greening in key areas such as urban and rural areas, roads, rivers and lakes, and steadily improving the total amount and quality of greenery.

4、 Coordinated promotion of urban and rural greening and beautification

Develop and implement a five-year action plan for the high-quality development of Beijing's entire forest city, and award Beijing the title of "National Forest City". Strengthen urban landscaping construction, continuously improve urban living environment, build and renovate 34000 hectares of urban green space nationwide, start construction of 4128 "pocket parks", and construct 5325 kilometers of greenways. We will deepen the pilot program for open sharing of parks and green spaces, with 846 cities and counties across the country implementing open sharing in 6174 urban parks, and rotating shared lawns covering 11000 hectares. Convene a national on-site promotion meeting to learn and apply the experience of the "Ten Million Project", encouraging tree planting and courtyard greening in rural areas, with a village greening coverage rate of 32.01%. The construction of village appearance in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangxi has achieved significant results. The newly added road greening mileage exceeds 80000 kilometers, and the cumulative railway greening mileage in China has reached 58600 kilometers. The greening rate of the Yilin railway line has reached 87.9%. Further improve the system of river and lake chiefs, strictly control the spatial distribution of river and lake shorelines, create waterfront ecological spaces and green recreational corridors, and achieve a green area of 43000 hectares around river channels, lakes, and reservoirs. In the construction of high standard farmland, construction of farmland protective forests should be tailored to local conditions to enhance the ability of farmland to resist natural disasters.

The national trade union system has organized the construction of over 1500 "trade union forests" and "model worker forests", planting nearly 15 million trees. The Communist Youth League system has deepened the implementation of the "Protect Mother River" action, innovatively carried out the "Green Plant Adoption" activity, mobilized nearly 2.5 million young members to participate, and covered hundreds of millions of people with related promotional products and online topics. The All China Women's Federation system has organized the planting of "women's forests" and built more than 12 million "beautiful courtyards". China Petroleum held the theme event "Planting Trees for Carbon Neutrality - Red Nanliang Forest", fully launching the "Ten Thousand Well Site Tree Planting and Afforestation Action", and completing the voluntary planting of 3.905 million trees. Sinopec has carried out tree planting activities such as "Green Wish" and "Creating Green Homeland", and constructed the "Saihanba Ecological Demonstration Forest". The company has been responsible for planting 2019000 trees throughout the year. The national metallurgical system has launched enterprise greening and mine reclamation actions, with 397 hectares of newly built green space. China Post continues to carry out the voluntary tree planting activity of "planting one tree by hand and greening one sky", achieving more than 288000 trees online and offline.

5、 Continuously improving management quality level

We will comprehensively promote and implement the forest chief system, establish and improve a work mechanism that combines supervision, assessment, and incentives, optimize and improve the evaluation indicators of the forest chief system, and solidly carry out the supervision and assessment work for 2023. The leading role of the forest chief system will continue to strengthen. Each province, district, and city has issued 34 forest chief orders to solve 32 key and difficult problems. Strengthen the management of land use maps, adhere to reporting the location of greening tasks and issuing land use maps, and ensure that all tasks such as afforestation, grass planting, and sand control are completed in accordance with the land use maps. More than 1800 township forestry stations have been restored nationwide. Carry out enforcement inspections of the Wetland Protection Law, promote the approval of the Wetland Convention to establish an international mangrove center in Shenzhen, and add 18 international important wetlands and 29 national important wetlands. Actively promote the formulation of the Regulations on the Protection of Ancient and Famous Trees, implement the rescue and revitalization of ancient and famous trees, jointly carry out the "Spring Breeze 2023" special action to crack down on rectification, hold the "Double Hundred" ancient tree selection and publicity activities, and hold the National Ancient and Famous Tree Protection Science Popularization Week. We have solidly carried out forest and grassland fire prevention and pest control packages, with 328 forest fires and 15 grassland fires occurring throughout the year, a year-on-year decrease of 53.74% and 28.57% respectively, maintaining a historical low. The five-year campaign for the prevention and control of pine wilt disease has been deeply promoted, achieving a "four reduction" in county-level epidemic areas, township level epidemic points, incidence area, and number of diseased and dead trees. The incidence area of white moths in the United States decreased by 8.08% year-on-year. We have completed the prevention and control of harmful organisms in forestry and grassland, covering an area of 9.129 million hectares and 9.067 million hectares, as well as the control of 40000 hectares of Spartina alterniflora.

6、 Ecological beauty and coordinated development of people's wealth

The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council have issued the "Plan for Deepening the Reform of Collective Forest Rights System". Convene a teleconference to deepen the reform of the collective forest rights system. Support three pilot areas in Fujian, Jiangxi, and Chongqing to deepen the reform of the collective forest tenure system, as well as seven comprehensive pilot cities for national forestry reform and development, to take the lead in pilot projects, with a focus on state-owned forest farms serving the collective forest reform, and layout 600 pilot state-owned forest farms. Issuing guidance on cleaning up and standardizing the historical legacy issues of forest tenure confirmation and registration. The forest and grass industry has developed healthily, with a total output value of 9.28 trillion yuan nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%. The number of ecotourism tourists in China has reached 2.531 billion. Realize a forest food production of 226 million tons, mainly consisting of economic forests, including 9.51 million tons of woody oil crops such as camellia oil, walnuts, and olive oil. Accelerate the implementation of the three-year action plan for the development of the Camellia oleifera industry, with 682000 hectares of newly planted and low yield forests renovated nationwide, and the annual tea oil production reaching 800000 tons. Jiangxi Province has issued a three-year action plan to promote the high-quality development of the Camellia oleifera industry. Release the three-year action plan and global action plan to accelerate the development of "replacing plastic with bamboo", and establish the Innovation Research Institute of Replacing Plastic with Bamboo.

7、 A more sound support and guarantee system

An investment of 27.5 billion yuan will be allocated from the central budget to fully implement the "dual" plan and special construction plan. The central government continues to increase investment in forestry and grassland, and arranges 102.8 billion yuan in transfer payments for forestry and grassland. An additional 40 billion yuan of treasury bond was issued to support the construction of forest and grassland fire prevention barrier systems. As of the end of 2023, the balance of green loans was 3.008 trillion yuan, the balance of forest rights mortgage loans was 153.3 billion yuan, and the balance of green bonds was 1.98 trillion yuan. Continuously increasing efforts to ensure ecological water diversion, achieving continuous flow of the Yellow River for 24 years, and forming a certain area of ecological wetlands in the hinterland of the Kubuqi Desert. Normalize the comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of forest and grass ecology, issue the National Ecological Quality Supervision and Monitoring Work Plan (2023-2025), and complete the national ecological ground monitoring pilot and ecological remote sensing monitoring. Carry out forest and grassland fire prevention meteorological and pest meteorological forecasting and early warning, carry out monitoring and early warning of sandstorm disasters, and emergency response. Support universities to establish undergraduate majors such as smart forestry, and continue to carry out the restructuring and construction of key laboratories in the field of national land greening. In combination with the key special projects of the 14th Five Year Plan for National Key Research and Development, relevant research will be carried out on major scientific issues and key technologies related to efficient cultivation and deep processing of forestry resources, and key technology research and development projects such as the Three North Project will be launched. Accomplish the commendation of forestry heroes, advanced collectives of the national forestry and grass system, model worker and exemplary individual. We will complete the commendation of national heroic groups, advanced collectives, pacesetters and exemplary individual in combating desertification. Carry out a series of theme publicity and social public welfare science publicity, and create and broadcast a number of excellent film and television works with relevant themes, such as "Green Water and Green Mountains Bring Smiles", "Mount Wuyi · Our National Park", "Pride of Parents", etc.

2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is a crucial year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five Year Plan.  

(Note: The national statistical data mentioned in the bulletin does not include the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region, and Taiwan Province.)