Today (21st) is the 12th International Day of Forests. This year’s theme is “Forests and Innovation: Innovative Solutions to Create a Better New World.”
The reporter learned from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the country's forest area and stock volume have continued to maintain "double growth."
National forest area and stock volume maintain "double growth"
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country has insisted on paying equal attention to the quantity and quality of afforestation, and has continued to carry out afforestation and greening, continuously expanding forest area and improving forest quality.
The forest area has increased from 3.12 billion acres ten years ago to 3.465 billion acres now. The forest coverage rate has increased from 21.63% ten years ago to 24.02% now. The forest stock volume has increased from 15.137 billion cubic meters ten years ago. increased to the current 19.493 billion cubic meters.
At present, the national forest vegetation biomass reaches 21.886 billion tons, and the total carbon storage of forest and grass vegetation nationwide reaches 11.443 billion tons.
Through continuous large-scale land greening, my country has contributed about 1/4 of the world's new greening area in the past 20 years. The preserved area of artificial forests has reached 1.314 billion acres, ranking first in the world, and becoming the country with the fastest growing forest resources in the world.
Zhang Wei, Director of the Ecological Protection and Restoration Department of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, (my country) has implemented a total of 100 "dual" projects and 65 national greening pilot demonstration projects to coordinate the promotion of urban and rural greening. The national forest area and storage volume Volume has maintained "double growth" for many consecutive years.
Improve forest quality and promote sustainable forest management
"Dual" projects refer to important ecosystem protection projects and major restoration projects.
Although our country is a country with large forests, compared with developed countries in the world's forestry industry, our country's forest structure is unreasonable and its forest quality is particularly low.
To this end, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration has stepped up efforts to improve forest quality and promote sustainable forest management.
In the past few days, at the site of the low-efficiency forest renovation project of the Tianhushan State-owned Forest Farm in Taihe, Jiangxi, villagers are busy planting trees. More than 30,000 saplings will be planted here, including slash pine, liquidambar and other tree species, to create a mixture of needles and broadleaf trees. Forest.
Yang Zanming, director of Tianhushan Forest Farm in Taihe County: The carbon sequestration capacity of mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests is stronger, which is more in line with the requirements of the biological chain and ecological chain, thereby improving the forest quality of the new mountainous site.
The forest area in Yingtan, Jiangxi Province exceeds 2.8 million acres, and the city’s forest coverage rate reaches 56.69%.
The local government has incorporated improving forest quality into the construction of sponge cities and carried out coordinated and scientific management.
This year's afforestation, in addition to selecting water-saving urban greening tree species, also focuses on the overall consideration of water-based planting and water-based greening.
He Zemin, Section Chief of the Urban Construction Section of the Yingtan Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau: Since 2021, the city has invested a total of more than 4 billion yuan. The quality of the forests has continued to improve, and the water environment has continued to improve, forming a new ecological pattern of "forests in the city, water and trees connected".
Liuyang, located on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, is a key forestry county in Hunan. In order to further strengthen the management and protection of forest resources, the local area has established a "smart forest monitoring and early warning platform", using drone patrols, thermal imaging and infrared dual-spectrum cameras to form a "Watch from the sky, patrol on the ground, and check online" to manage and protect the network around the clock.
Xiao Bolin, director of the Liuyang Municipal Forestry Bureau: It can not only achieve full coverage of forest fire monitoring, but also monitor the distribution density of forest trees from multiple angles and make timely adjustments, thereby promoting forest growth and improving forest quality.
In order to improve the quality of forests, this year, our country plans to complete the pilot task of sustainable forest management of more than 6 million acres, focusing on the Three-North region and the southern collective forest area, and strive to achieve equal emphasis on quantity, quality, stock, and increment.
(CCTV reporter Wang Kaibo, Shi Shaoyu and Liu Zhihao)