Northeast China's Jilin plans greener future

Northeast China's Jilin province afforested 80,000 hectares in 2019, and plans to afforest more than 93,000 ha in 2020, according to the Jilin forestry and grassland administration.

Officials said that the afforestation aims to build a beautiful Jilin and provide an ecological guarantee for Jilin's overall revitalization. The work will be done in five key areas.

1. To improve the quality and functions of shelter forests: The province will promote the restoration and improvement of farmland shelter forests in the Midwest, restore and upgrade more than 6,666 ha of degraded and over-mature forest belts and return 2,666 ha of farmland to forests.

2. Promote the work of preventing and controlling desertification. The province will complete desertification control of 6,666 ha, speed up construction of the sand control demonstration zone in Changling county and the precision sand control project in Tongyu county. It will give full play to natural resources, agriculture and rural areas, the ecological environment, water conservation and other departments -- to promote the comprehensive management of desertificated lands and plant shiny-leaved yellowhorn, sea-buckthorn and other trees with both ecological and economic functions.

3. Continuously improve the level of greening in urban and rural areas. This year, Jilin province will strive to become a national forest city, add 7 million square meters of urban green space and beautify 1,021 villages.

4. Promote the greening of roads, railways and the beautification of areas near rivers and reservoirs. The province will add 370 km of green belts along the railway, 530 km along the expressways and 3,457 km of rural highways and other roads.

5. Strengthen cooperation with various departments. The province will innovate tree planting methods and launch online planting platforms, to encourage more people to participate in planting. It will strength partnerships with different departments to implement large-scale land greening, according to officials.