China Environment News

We know that China contributed about 25% of the new green area added globally. So what did China do in 2024?

The Office of the National Greening Committee of China released the “2024 China Land Greening Status Report” on March 12. Here are some key takeaways:

—— In 2024, the country completed 4.446 million hectares of afforestation, 3.224 million hectares of grass planting, 2.783 million hectares of desertification, the forest coverage rate exceeds 25%, and the forest volume will exceed 20 billion cubic meters.

——The central government allocated 32 billion yuan for the construction of the Three North Shelter Forest, and completed the afforestation area of more than 3.80 million hectares.

——Completed the ecological protection and restoration area of more than 5 million hectares, including the implementation of 49 historical legacy abandoned mine ecological restoration demonstration projects, completed the restoration and treatment area of about 40,000 hectares; new soil erosion control area of 64,000 square kilometers, the construction of ecological clean small watershed 677.

——More than 6,200 urban small parks and 7,300 kilometers of urban greenways have been built.

——The new highway greening mileage is 50,000 kilometers throughout the year. The greening rate of railway lines across the country is 85.9%. The new green area around rivers and lakes is 333.8 hectares.

——Completed forestry, grassland pest control area 8.40 million hectares, 7.866 million hectares, separately.

—— Launch the national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading market, approve the first batch of 5 validation and verification agencies in the field of forestry carbon sinks, and publicize 26 afforestation carbon sinks and mangrove construction projects.

——The total output value of forest and grass industry in the whole year was 10.17 trillion yuan.

—— The number of ecotourism tourists reached 2.76 billion, an increase of 9.1% year-on-year.

Source: China Ecological Civilization, March 14, 2025.
https://xueyingyingxue.substack.com/p/china-releases-report-on-greening