The Three North Shelterbelt Project has huge benefits
Beijing, August 14 (Reporter Yan Bing) The reporter learned from the State Forestry and Grassland Administration that the fifth phase of the construction of China's first major ecological project, the Three North Shelterbelt System, is about to be completed. Over the past 40 years, the Three-North Project has completed a total of 30.14 million hectares of afforestation and preservation. The forest coverage rate in the project area has increased from 5.05% to 13.57%. The characteristic forest and fruit industry and ecological tourism have developed rapidly. The project construction has achieved huge ecological, economic and social benefits. Practicing green water and green mountains is a successful example of Jinshan Yinshan's philosophy.
The Three North Project has always put the restoration of green waters and green mountains as the primary task, large-scale afforestation and grass planting, and continuous restoration of the natural ecology. A total of 7.882 million hectares of windbreak and sand-fixing forests have been built, 336,000 square kilometers of desertified land have been treated, and more than 10 million hectares of grasslands and pastures with severe desertification and salinization have been protected and restored. National desertification and desertification monitoring results show that since 2014, the area of desertified land in the project area has been continuously reduced, achieving a historic transition from "sand advancement and human retreat" to "green advancement and sand retreat". The average annual number of sandstorm days has dropped from 6.8 days to In 2.4 days, the three major sandy areas of Mu Us, Horqin and Hulun Buir were initially treated, and the area of desertified land continued to decrease.
The Three North Project insists on the overall promotion of ecological governance and improvement of people's livelihood, and strives to build an eco-economic shelter forest system. For more than 40 years, the timber forest in the project area has been converted into timber reserves of 1.83 billion cubic meters, with an economic value of 913 billion yuan. A total of 4.63 million hectares of economic forests have been built, and a number of important dry and fresh fruit production bases such as walnuts, red dates, chestnuts, peppers, and apples have been formed. With an annual output of 48 million tons of dry and fresh fruits, 15 million people have achieved stable poverty alleviation by relying on characteristic forest and fruit industries. The project area has also formed a new pattern of eco-tourism development with the forest park network as the skeleton and wetland parks and desert parks as supplements. The annual reception of 380 million tourists and direct tourism income of 48 billion yuan.