China's landscape restoration initiative successful in eco-conservation, restoration

China's ambitious landscape restoration program known as the "Shan-Shui Initiative" has proven successful since it was rolled out seven years, with the conservation or restoration of 80 million mu (over 5.3 million hectares) of damaged or degraded landscape nationwide, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The initiative, which translates to "Mountains and Rivers," was recognized as a World Restoration Flagship at a U.N. biodiversity conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada in December 2022. This ambitious initiative combines 75 large-scale projects to restore ecosystems, from mountains to coastal estuaries, across the world's most populous nation.

"The Shan-Shui Initiative has played a role in improving the diversity, stability and sustainability of important ecosystems in key regions such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin.

An additional 30 million mu (2 million hectares) will have been restored by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), bringing the overall acreage of conservation and restoration to more than 100 million mu (6.7 million hectares)," said Lu Lihua, deputy director of the Department of Territorial and Spatial Ecological Restoration under the Ministry of Natural Resources.

So far, China has restored 2,000 km of coastline and 40,000 hectares of coastal wetlands under the "Shan-Shui Initiative".

The total area of mangrove forests nationwide has reached nearly 30,000 hectares, making China one of the few countries in the world with a net increase in mangrove forest areas.