In April in Beijing, flowers bloom and trees sprout new buds. On the morning of the 3rd, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Lucheng Town, Tongzhou District, Beijing to participate in voluntary tree planting activities in the capital. At the tree planting site, he emphasized that to green the motherland, we must simultaneously expand, promote and protect green.
The General Secretary has participated in tree planting activities for many years in a row. What message has he conveyed? This time it is emphasized that greening the motherland must take all three aspects simultaneously. What are the considerations? "Current Affairs News Eye" explains it for you.
01
Planting trees is full of hope
There are two important time points for tree planting this year.
The first is the 45th anniversary of the Arbor Day in New China. In February 1979, the sixth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People's Congress decided on March 12 as Arbor Day based on the proposal of the State Council.
The second is the 40th compulsory tree planting day in the capital. In March 1985, Beijing designated the first rest day in April as the compulsory tree planting day in the capital.
△Overlooking the tree planting spot in Lucheng Town, Tongzhou District, Beijing. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Liu Yue)
Every year before and after the compulsory tree planting day in the capital, party and state leaders take the lead in setting an example and practicing it, planting trees together with the people in the capital.
General Secretary Xi Jinping takes this matter very seriously. This year is the 12th time he has participated in tree planting activities since he became the general secretary of the party. Counting the number of times he has participated since he started working in the central government, he has participated 17 times.
△The tree planting site is located at the junction of Tongzhou District, Beijing City, and Beisan County, Langfang City, Hebei Province. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Fan Kai)
The location where the general secretary planted trees this time is located in Lucheng Town, Tongzhou District. This is the third time the General Secretary has gone to Tongzhou District, Beijing, to plant trees, after going to Zhangjiawan Town in 2018 and Yongshun Town in 2019.
The choice of tree planting spots contains profound meanings. The General Secretary has clearly instructed that tree planting spots should be selected in the afforestation plan, and the places where people plant trees should be selected and not arranged separately. This year’s tree planting site is located on the Chaobai River in Beijing and Hebei’s first cross-border forest park.
△Young pioneers participating in tree planting on site. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Li Zengren)
Planting trees not only plants green saplings, but also plants a bright future for the motherland.
On the eve of Children's Day last year, the General Secretary said during an inspection at Beijing Yuying School that the construction of ecological civilization in the new era should start from childhood, so that the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver" should be implanted in children's hearts early.
Except for their absence due to the epidemic in 2020, the Young Pioneers plant trees with the General Secretary every year. At this year's tree planting site, the General Secretary said that young people are the future of the motherland. They should actively participate in labor, plant trees and plant green seeds in their hearts since childhood.
Only with mud under your feet and light in your heart can you become the pillar of your country.
△Young pioneers participating in tree planting on site. (Photographed by CCTV reporter E Jiefu)
02
Entering a forest and plotting "the great man of the country"
On April 4 last year, with the spring rain falling, General Secretary Xi Jinping participated in voluntary tree planting at the tree planting site of Dongba Central Park in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Plant a piece of green and pay attention to more green. Over the past year, the General Secretary has visited various forests during his domestic inspection tour, and has planned the construction of ecological civilization as the "biggest thing in the country" in the governance agenda.
△Spring is in full swing on the outskirts of Beijing. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Guo Hong)
On April 10, less than a week after the tree planting in the suburbs of Beijing ended, the General Secretary made his first domestic inspection of the year and came to the Zhanjiang Mangrove National Nature Reserve in Guangdong. He pointed out that this mangrove forest is a "national treasure" and should be protected as well as our eyes.
Since then, from the Xinhua Forest Farm in Bayannur, Inner Mongolia, to Cuiyunlang in Jiange County, Sichuan, to the Mohe Forest Farm in Daxinganling, Heilongjiang, the General Secretary has been concerned about the ecological barrier of the "Three Norths" shelterbelt system project, and realized that the world's largest artificial The valuable inspiration for the preservation and inheritance of the Gübelin is a reflection on the dialectical relationship between forest protection and tourism development.
△At the tree planting site in Lucheng City, Xi Jinping planted many saplings such as Chinese pine, cotinus, maple, cherry, red leaf peach, Platycladus orientalis, etc. This is the Chinese pine sapling he planted. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Shi Cheng)
Over the past year, the General Secretary attended the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference and systematically deployed strategic tasks and major measures to comprehensively promote the construction of a beautiful China; during his inspection tour of Inner Mongolia, he hosted a symposium to focus on strengthening the comprehensive prevention and control of desertification and promoting key ecological projects such as the "Three Norths" Construction; when presiding over the 11th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, he clearly pointed out that "new productive forces themselves are green productive forces"... The General Secretary has been planning a new chapter in the construction of a beautiful China.
△This is the cotinus sapling planted by Xi Jinping. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Lu Hongyu)
It’s that time of year again for tree planting. People see the long-term persistence and understand the consistent concept. Time after time, we shoveled soil, built cofferdams, and raised water for irrigation, which accumulated more thoughts and planned more practical measures.
At this year's tree planting site, the General Secretary listed China's extraordinary achievements and outstanding problems in afforestation, explained the importance of greening and planting trees, and also pointed out a clear path to greening the motherland.
△This is the arborvitae sapling planted by Xi Jinping. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Lu Hongyu)
03
Continuously enhance our “green wealth”
During the tree planting, General Secretary Xi Jinping had a cordial conversation with the cadres and the masses present. He said that this year marks the 45th anniversary of the Arbor Day in New China. People across the country have persisted in afforestation, turning barren mountains into beautiful scenery and transforming deserts into oases. Their achievements have attracted worldwide attention.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, our country’s forest coverage rate was only 8.6%. Through the implementation of a series of key ecological projects such as the "Three North" protective forest, returning farmland to forest and grassland, and continuing to carry out voluntary tree planting activities for all people, my country's forest coverage rate has increased to 24.02%.
△The tree planting spot in Lucheng Town is full of life. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Zhao Hua)
While we are proud of our country's ecological achievements, we cannot ignore ecological debts and ecological pressures.
At last year’s National Ecological and Environmental Protection Conference, the General Secretary pointed out that the structural, root-cause and trend pressures on my country’s ecological and environmental protection have not been fundamentally relieved. my country's economic and social development has entered a stage of high-quality development that is accelerating greening and low-carbonization, and the construction of ecological civilization is still in a critical period when pressure is mounting and the burden is being borne.
When forests and grass thrive, ecology thrives. At this year's tree planting site, the General Secretary said that the problem of lack of forests and greenery in our country is still prominent, and the role of forests as a "treasure house" has not been fully played.
△Young pioneers participating in tree planting on site. (Photographed by CCTV reporter E Jiefu)
We should face the problems head-on, shoulder our responsibilities, and plant trees to achieve greater results.
The General Secretary once pointed out, "The forest is something we inherited from our ancestors and should be passed on to future generations. The forest should be worthy of our ancestors and worthy of our descendants."
At the tree planting site this year, the General Secretary said that adding greenery means increasing advantages, and planting trees means planting the future. We must plant one crop after another, one generation after another, and continue to thicken our "green family background."
Pay close attention, take a long-term approach, and make contributions over a long period of time, benefiting future generations.
△The young pioneers who participated in tree planting took a group photo. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Lu Xinyu)
04
How to "expand green, promote green, and protect green" simultaneously?
How to do the important work of greening the motherland? General Secretary Xi Jinping gave the answer during this tree planting period: we must simultaneously expand greenery, promote greenery, and protect greenery. The General Secretary made a systematic explanation on this point.
△Saplings planted on site. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Zhao Hua)
Expanding greening means scientifically promoting large-scale land greening, planting trees in the right place and using the right method at the right time.
Expanding green areas must be scientific. When participating in a tree planting event in 2020, the General Secretary once emphasized that we should adapt measures to local conditions, plan scientifically, and not deliberately pursue exotic flowers and rare trees, but truly plant trees for the people and benefit the masses.
In expanding green areas, we must pay attention to synergy. At the National Ecological Environmental Protection Conference held last year, the General Secretary pointed out that it is necessary to coordinately promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, and carry out the construction of ecological civilization in an all-round, all-regional, and all-process manner.
We must both “subtract” carbon emissions and increase “green expansion”. This is exactly the methodology for building a beautiful China.
△In Arctic Village in Heilongjiang Province, Linhaixueyuan helps villagers increase their income and become rich. (Photo/Visual China)
To promote greening, we need to focus on quality and efficiency, expand the path for transforming green waters and green mountains into mountains of gold and silver, promote better linkage of the forest's "reservoir, money bank, grain bank, and carbon bank" to achieve the unification of ecological, economic and social benefits. .
The General Secretary has emphasized many times that we must work hard on industrial ecology and ecological industrialization. Last September, during an inspection at Arctic Village in Heilongjiang, the General Secretary pointed out that the forest is a large treasure house that integrates water reservoirs, grain depots, money depots, and carbon depots. "It is necessary to establish the concept that adding green is to increase advantages, and protecting forests is to protect wealth," and "adhere to the simultaneous development of under-forest economy and tourism."
As the General Secretary pointed out, people will not let down the green mountains, and the green mountains will never let down the people.
△Mohe Forest Farm in Daxinganling Region, Heilongjiang Province. (Photo/Visual China)
Protecting green means strengthening the protection of forest and grass resources, doing a good job in preventing and extinguishing fires, carrying out in-depth investigation and rectification of major hidden dangers, and protecting the hard-won greening achievements.
In September last year, while inspecting the natural forest area of Mohe Forest Farm in the Greater Khingan Mountains, the General Secretary listened to a briefing on strengthening forest fire prevention and fire extinguishing. He pointed out that we must pay equal attention to afforestation and forest protection, take precautions and prevent problems before they occur, and we must not let the achievements of decades, centuries, or thousands of years be ruined in one day.
△Amorpha amorpha and poplar poplar planted in the state-owned Xinhua Forest Farm in Linhe District, Bayannur, Inner Mongolia. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Xu Yongsong)
At this year’s tree planting site, the General Secretary also talked about the main battlefield of land greening-the Three North Region. The general secretary emphasized that more efforts should be concentrated on the construction of the "Three North" project and the construction of the Great Green Wall in northern Xinjiang.
From the emphasis on "loving, planting, and protecting green" during tree planting in previous years to the systematic elaboration of "expanding, promoting, and protecting green" during tree planting this year, the General Secretary led us to have a deeper understanding of the value, significance, and paths of afforestation.
△Expand green, promote green, protect green, and build a beautiful China. (Photographed by CCTV reporter Fan Kai)
Ten years ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping said earnestly at a meeting: "Forests are the main body of terrestrial ecology, the largest survival capital of the country and nation, and the foundation of human survival. It is related to survival security, freshwater security, homeland security, and species. security, climate security and the overall situation of national diplomacy. This issue must be viewed from the perspective of the historical development of the Chinese nation, leaving a beautiful homeland for future generations, and letting the pen of history leave a record of positive energy for contemporary Chinese people."
People are diligent and spring comes early, so it is the right time to plant green trees. Let us respond to the General Secretary’s call with action and actively participate in afforestation. Everyone strives to be a green messenger and an ecological pioneer, adding green color to the construction of a beautiful China.