Afforestation efforts see further progress

China planted 3.6 million hectares of forest last year, more than double the area of Beijing, according to a National Land Greening Communique released by the National Afforestation Committee.

Greening projects prevented the expansion of more than 1.4 million hectares of sandy and desert land and restored more than 3 million hectares of grassland, it said.

March 12 marked China’s 44th Tree Planting Day, and the committee called on all adults to plant three to five trees a year and encouraged public participation in various greening projects, from donations to tree adoption.

Voluntary tree planting in China over the past four decades has led to nearly 79 billion trees planted. That has increased China’s forest coverage rate to 23 percent, almost double that of the 1980s.