{"id":27831,"date":"2009-03-12T13:46:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-12T13:46:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-05-14T18:38:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T18:38:32","slug":"2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries\/","title":{"rendered":"China plants trees amid eco worries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As they do every March 12, an estimated three million people took up shovels this week to plant saplings, helping to reinforce the man-made ecological barrier known as China&rsquo;s Great Green Wall. If the plan is completed as scheduled in 2050, trees will cover over 400 million hectares or 42% of China&rsquo;s landmass, creating arguably the biggest man-made carbon sponge on the planet. Initiated in 1978, the tree belt is supposed to stretch 4,480 kilometres from western Xinjiang to eastern Heilongjiang.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While the forests are designed to stop sand and dust storms, a greater threat comes from an unsustainable demand for wood. As a result, China&rsquo;s forest quality has declined significantly, diminishing biodiversity and putting extra pressure on woodland overseas to satisfy an appetite for timber that has &ndash; until the current economic crisis &#8211; grown hugely in the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The decline of biodiversity is a problem across China. Although tree coverage has increased from 12% to 18% of the nation&rsquo;s land area, many saplings are planted in semi-desert areas where they deplete water supplies. Life beneath tree canopies is declining because of over-hunting, gathering of funguses and herbs, and the tendency to replace old-growth forests with tracts of fast-growing trees.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;China plants more trees than the rest of the world combined,&rdquo; says John McKinnon, head of the EU-China Biodiversity Programme. &ldquo;But the trouble is they tend to be monoculture plantations. They are not places where birds want to live.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>See <font color=\"#0000ff\"><u><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/environment\/2009\/mar\/11\/china-forests-deforestation\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">full story<\/a><\/u><\/font><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite massive tree-planting efforts, China&rsquo;s insatiable demand for timber has led to a critical decline in the quality and quantity of the country&rsquo;s forests and reduced biodiversity, the <em>Guardian<\/em> reported. The demand also has exposed China&rsquo;s northern frontiers to erosion, dust storms and floods, according to environmentalists and international advisers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-27831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>China plants trees amid eco worries | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite massive tree-planting efforts, China&rsquo;s insatiable demand for timber has led to a critical decline in the quality and quantity of the country&rsquo;s forests and reduced biodiversity, the Guardian reported. The demand also has exposed China&rsquo;s northern frontiers to erosion, dust storms and floods, according to environmentalists and international advisers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China plants trees amid eco worries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite massive tree-planting efforts, China&rsquo;s insatiable demand for timber has led to a critical decline in the quality and quantity of the country&rsquo;s forests and reduced biodiversity, the Guardian reported. The demand also has exposed China&rsquo;s northern frontiers to erosion, dust storms and floods, according to environmentalists and international advisers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dialogue Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-12T13:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-14T18:38:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-logo_Thumbnail.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"China Dialogue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"China Dialogue\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/40c24e224303700bd7dc394435b5f1ed\"},\"headline\":\"China plants trees amid eco worries\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-12T13:46:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-14T18:38:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries\/\"},\"wordCount\":261,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2831-china-plants-trees-amid-eco-worries\/\",\"name\":\"China plants trees amid eco worries | Dialogue Earth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-12T13:46:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-14T18:38:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"Despite massive tree-planting efforts, China&rsquo;s insatiable demand for timber has led to a critical decline in the quality and quantity of the country&rsquo;s forests and reduced biodiversity, the Guardian reported. 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