THE GREAT FOREST OF CHINA

In 2014, China announced its intent to drastically reduce pollution, due to the chronic air pollution levels in its city as a result of extreme industrial expansion. This caused a shift in government policies to prioritising forest expansion, polluted river clean-ups, and strict environmental laws on officials, citizens and companies.

The Chinese government has since revealed several projects to improve national environmental impact and reduce their carbon footprint. The current plan has two stages: the first is to increase the forestation rate to 23 percent by 2020, the second aims to further boost this percentage to 26 by 2035.

This plan comes from China’s new initiative to greatly improve its environmental footprint, sustainability, and effects on climate change by increasing the forest coverage from 21.7 percent to 23 percent before 2019. With Trump pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement, China is intent to take the opportunity to dispose of its image as the most polluted nation in the world and take its place as a leading nation of sustainability.

The head of the State Forestry administration, Zhang Jianlong, stated that China aims to grow at least 6.66 million hectares of new forest by the end of 2018. 33.8 million hectares have already been planted across the county over the past five years, involving an investment of more than 538 billion yuan ($75 billion AUD) which will bring China’s total forest area to 208 million hectares.

In compliance with this, three new state forests within the Hebei province will be built, combining to a total area of 483,000 hectares. Hebei is known for its high levels of pollution as it surrounds the capital of Beijing. The province has pledged to increase its total forest coverage to 35 percent by the end of 2020.

The three new forests will be planted between 2018 to 2025 and will be located around the Baiyangdian Lake of the Xiongan New Area, in the Hunshandake Desert of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and at the Huanshui River Basin in the western Qinghai Province in the Tibetan Plateau.

This forestation plan comes as a solution to China’s industrial growth issues. With an extensive populace, totalling to a quarter of the global population, the country only has 7 percent of the world’s farmable land. Due to this China has long struggled to balance industrial growth and food production while maintaining environmental sustainability.

An “ecological red line” program has been initiated by the Chinese government which forces regions to restrict what is classified as “irrational development” and halt construction taking place near rivers, forests and national parks. The Ministry of Environmental Protection confirmed in a statement that half the provinces in the last month had presented plans, increasing the feasibility for the new policy to succeed and reach China's 2020 goal. 

In a statement by the National Development and Reform Commission, authorities were instructed to provide policy support in order to encourage China’s new doctrines and should aim to encourage the construction, operation and management of the farms. Companies are also approved to finance public-private partnerships in order to ensure the success of the program, while local authorities are encouraged to streamline the procedures to allow companies to be included.

"Companies, organisations and talent that specialise in greening work are all welcome to join in the country's massive greening campaign," said Jianlong. "Cooperation between government and social capital will be put on the priority list.”

China has been entering severe environmental stress; between 2001 to 2016 over 8 million hectares of forestation disappeared, with 2016 showing an alarming decrease as over 700,000 hectares were lost.

Despite the daunting task ahead, China’s new plans show the country’s determination to reclaim lost forests and make an environmental statement, transforming them from a nation famous for its overwhelming pollution, to becoming one of the most environmentally sustainable economies in the world.