China leads the world in artificial forest area

China has 87.6 million hectares of artificial forests and has made many achievements in ecological protection and restoration.

Wetlands in the Altun Mountains National Nature Reserve in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 1. Photo: Xinhua — Wetlands in the Altun Mountains National Nature Reserve in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 1. Photo: *Xinhua*

China has been steadily improving its ecological quality, making the largest contribution to the increase in global green space, and has made remarkable achievements in desertification control and national park construction, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA). The NFGA released a series of ecological protection results on August 15, the country's first National Ecology Day.

Over the past decade, efforts to protect and restore ecosystems have been stepped up. Forest area has steadily increased, with the national forest coverage rate rising from 21.63% to 24.02%. China has preserved 87.6 million hectares of man-made forests, ranking first in the world, according to the NFGA.

The country also contributed about a quarter of the increase in global green area, leading the world. The grassland area reached more than 264.5 million hectares, the largest in the world, with an overall vegetation coverage of 50.32%. Wetlands covered an area of more than 56.3 million hectares, ranking fourth in the world. Thanks to the implementation of important ecological projects, such as the TSFP afforestation project, China also achieved a desertification control area of more than 20 million hectares, and both sandy and desertified land areas were reduced.

China is building the world’s largest national park system by protected area, with 49 potential sites covering more than 1 million square kilometers, or about 10 percent of China’s land area. They will be home to more than 5,000 terrestrial vertebrate species and more than 29,000 plant species. The first five national parks in the system have already achieved positive results.

China also protects its ecosystems by enacting extensive regulations on forests, grasslands, wetlands, deserts and other areas, resulting in significantly lower rates of forest fire damage than the global average, according to the NFGA.

Thu Thao (According to Global Times )

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