China's forest and grass resources protection and development has achieved remarkable results since 2012, data released by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on the country's second National Ecology Day which falls on Thursday.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, China has completed afforestation of 1.02 billion mu (68 million hectares) and forest tending of 1.24 billion mu. The national forest coverage rate has increased from 21.63 percent to 24.02 percent.
The preserved area of artificial forests topped 1.31 billion mu, ranking first in the world. Over 700 million mu of land were improved through sowing grass. The grassland area exceeded 3.95 billion mu, also ranking first in the world.
China has completed more than 3,600 wetland conservation and restoration projects, with 845 million mu of wetlands, ranking fourth in the world.
China has conducted desertification control on 305 million mu of land, and 53 percent of the treatable desertified land has been addressed.
China has realized a historic transformation from "sand forcing humans to retreat" to "trees forcing sand to retreat", and achieved ahead of schedule the UN goal of zero net land degradation by 2030.
China launched the "Three North" shelterbelt program 40 years ago, aiming to rehabilitate desert-prone lands and desertified areas in northwest, north and northeast China. Since then, a total of 480 million mu of afforestation area has been preserved, 1.28 billion mu of degraded grassland controlled, 670 million mu of soil erosion tackled, and 450 million mu of farmland effectively protected.
Up to now, comprehensive management tasks of more than 40 million mu have been completed under the program.
China is also building the world's largest national park system, which will protect more than 80 percent of state-protected wildlife species and their habitats.
China has enhanced conservation efforts for rare and endangered wild plants by establishing the National Botanical Garden and the South China National Botanical Garden. With strengthened protection of and international cooperation on rare and endangered species such as the giant panda, the populations of the majority of rare and endangered wild plant and animal species are steadily increasing, and their habitat quality is improving.
China officially established the first batch of national parks such as Sanjiangyuan National Park, Giant Panda National Park, Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, National Park of Hainan Tropical Rainforest and Wuyishan National Park.
China has also established more than 9,000 nature reserves of different types and at various levels, accounting for about 18 percent of the country's land area. At the same time, China has 15 world natural heritage sites, four natural and cultural heritage sites, 47 global geoparks, and 34 world man and biosphere reserves.
China makes progress in greenland, biodiversity protection
