National Forestry and Grassland Administration: Over the past decade, China has contributed approximately 1/4 of the world's new green area. China | Country | Global
On August 15th, at the home event of China's first National Ecological Day, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration of China released the latest achievements in building a beautiful China.
The results show that China continues to strengthen ecological protection and restoration, and the quality of its ecosystem continues to improve. The forest area and forest volume continue to grow, and the national forest coverage rate has increased from 21.63% to 24.02%. The preserved area of artificial forests is 1.314 billion mu, ranking first in the world. In the past decade, China has contributed about 1/4 of the world's newly added green area, ranking first in the world. The grassland area is 3.968 billion mu, ranking first in the world, with a comprehensive vegetation coverage of 50.32%. The total area of wetlands is 845 million acres, ranking fourth in the world. China has comprehensively protected over 5.08 million ancient and famous trees, and the per capita park green area has increased from 11.80 square meters to 14.87 square meters.
In terms of desertification prevention and control, China has completed 305 million acres of desertification prevention and control through in-depth implementation of key ecological projects such as the "Three North" initiative. 53% of the desertified land that can be treated has been preliminarily treated, and both desertification and desertified land have been reduced. China has taken the lead in achieving the United Nations' goal of zero growth in land degradation by 2030, providing the world with a China plan for desertification prevention and control.
National parks are a significant institutional innovation in the construction of ecological civilization. In recent years, China has continuously strengthened top-level design, established the "four beams and eight pillars" system for national parks, issued the "National Park Spatial Layout Plan", and laid out 49 candidate areas for national parks, accounting for 10.3% of the land area. There are over 5000 terrestrial vertebrates and over 29000 higher plants distributed, protecting over 80% of the nationally protected wildlife species and their habitats.
At present, the construction of the first batch of 5 national parks has achieved significant results, achieving overall protection of the headwaters of the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Lancang River, opening up 13 ecological corridors for local populations of giant pandas, and protecting more than 70% of wild giant pandas. The population of Northeast tigers and leopards continues to increase, with over 50 Northeast tigers and 60 Northeast leopards. The population of gibbons in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park has recovered to 6 groups and 37. Actively promoting the integration and optimization of nature reserves, strengthening the protection of wild animals and plants, 65% of higher plant communities and 74% of key protected wild animal and plant species have been effectively protected. National Botanical Gardens and South China National Botanical Gardens have been established in Beijing and Guangzhou, and Yunnan Asian elephants have been praised worldwide for their northward migration and southward return.
China has fully established a forest tenure system, with nearly 1.2 million forest tenure at all levels. It has established a legal framework covering the four major ecosystems of forests, grasslands, wetlands, and deserts, as well as the protection of wildlife and plants.
