Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People’s Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, emphasized on April 3, 2025 that voluntary tree planting activities in the capital is a national action and must continue to work from generation to generation. In 1981, our country launched the national voluntary tree planting campaign.
“Voluntary tree planning is a nationwide initiative that must be carried on for generations,” Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when attending a volunteer tree planning activity in Beijing on April 3, 2025. China launched a nationwide volunteer tree-planting campaign in 1981.
On March 12, 2025, volunteers planted saplings together in Niujie Community, Jiulong Street, Luoping County, Qujing City, Yunnan Province. Image source: Xinhua News Agency
【Knowledge Points】
At the beginning of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the national forest coverage rate was only 8.6%. In the early 1980s, my country’s ecological environment was fragile, and the national forest coverage rate was only 12%. On December 13, 1981, the Fourth Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress passed the “Resolution on Carrying out the National Voluntary Tree Planting Movement”, and afforestation and greening the motherland became the legal obligation of every citizen of appropriate age. For more than 40 years, the national voluntary tree planting movement has been continuously carried out in China, becoming an effective way to promote national land greening and playing an important role in increasing forest resources, greening the motherland’s land, and strengthening ecological civilization construction.
In order to allow the people to participate in land greening better and more conveniently, the whole nation has carried out voluntary tree planting innovated and carried out, and the form of responsibility has expanded to eight categories, including afforestation and greening, nurture and maintenance, nature protection, seed recognition and adoption, facility construction, donation of funds, volunteer services, and other forms, and has their own conversion standards: for example, hang an artificial bird’s nest in the forest to calculate one tree planting task; adopt and protect one ancient tree and famous tree, and complete the task of 3 tree planting; voluntarily donate funds to legal public offering organizations for land greening, or donate urgently needed materials for local land greening, or convert the corresponding number of trees to be planted. The Office of the National Greening Committee continues to promote the “Internet + Voluntary Tree Planting for All”. In 2024, 61,000 various responsibilities were released, and more than 2,600 bases of all levels and types were built to provide services for citizens of appropriate age to be nearby, timely and diverse, and promote the continuous deepening and practical voluntary tree planting for All.
As of the end of 2023, my country’s forest coverage rate exceeded 25%, the forest stock exceeded 20 billion cubic meters, and the annual carbon sink reached more than 1.2 billion tons. The area of artificial forests ranked first in the world, becoming the country with the most greening increase in the world. The continuous thickening of the “green family foundation” has injected strong green momentum into the construction of a beautiful China.
【Important Speech】
At present, my country’s forest coverage rate has exceeded 25%, contributing about 25% of the global new green area.
The current forest coverage rate in China has surpassed 25 percent, and the country contributes about a quarter of the world’s newly increased affordance areas.
The ecological environment continues to improve, and the people’s feelings are the most direct and sincere. At the same time, we must see that the total amount of forest and grass resources in my country is still insufficient, and the quality and efficiency are not high enough. We must effectively solve prominent problems and strive to do better every year.
The ecological environment keeps improving, a fact that has been directly and tangibly felt by the people. In the meantime, the total forest and grassland resources in China are still insufficient. We should make efforts to effectively address prominent issues and to do even better year on year in this regard.
——On April 3, 2025, Xi Jinping’s important speech when participating in the capital’s voluntary tree planting activity
【Related Words】
Beautiful China
Beautiful China
Chinese Tree Planting Day
National Tree Planting Day
China Daily Network English Dots and Tianjin Studio (this article was first published on the “Study Strong Country” learning platform)
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[Editor in charge: Chen Danni]
