How green was my country? We could be asking this sooner than later if we don't do our bit to protect our forests and improve the country's environment.

To prevent that question from ever being asked, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) and China Mobile sent a message to 300 million cellphone users just before Arbor Day on March 12. It read: "To ensure that China has a blue sky, green mountains and clean water, please plant trees."

The green movement is not new. In fact, the late leader Deng Xiaoping started it after floods claimed more than 1,000 lives and rendered 1 million people homeless in Southwest China's Sichuan Province in 1981. He asked every person above the age of 11, except the old and disadvantaged, to plant three to five saplings a year or make other equivalent contributions to the country's ecology.

Volunteers from Suining in Sichuan Province plant trees. After 25 years, China's green movement has increased its forest stock volume from 11.5 billion to 12.4 billion cubic meters, a qualitative and quantitative change historically. Zhong Min

After 25 years, his vision has raised China's forest cover from 12 percent to 18 percent, with 50 billion trees being planted. That, going by China's present population, means an average person has planted about four trees, increasing the green cover by 5.3 million hectares.

The forest stock volume has increased from 11.5 billion to 12.4 billion cubic meters; a qualitative and quantitative change historically. China's planted forest cover even ranked first in the world with 54 million hectares.

But that's not enough, says the SFA, for the forest cover and number of trees should have been much higher if every person had planted three to five saplings every year. In fact, a forest administration survey showed only half the people fulfilled their responsibility last year, resulting in a meagre rise of 10 percentage points in forest cover from 2005.

So this year, the SFA plans to turn more barren hills and fields into lush green zones. Also, it has vowed to enrich the tree varieties to avoid pest attacks, which have caused more loss than fires to the national economy.

"No matter how high your official post is, how busy you are with your job or how old you are, you should contribute to the country's green drive," says SFA spokesperson Cao Qingyao.

The SFA has embarked on an innovative plan to establish a biofuel forest base during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) by planting 13 million hectares of bio-energy forest. The planting of trees, mainly jatropha, is expected to enrich the source and increase the use of clean energy.

"The green movement has made people aware of the importance of forest conservation and plantation as a voluntary practice," says SFA Director Jia Zhibang. "From ministerial officials and army generals to the common man all have become part of the drive."

Among the government's afforestation and conservation projects are restoration of forest over some land under cultivation. This has added 21 million hectares to the country's green cover. The natural forest conservation project has prevented 950 million hectares of natural forests from being felled or destroyed. Moves to stop grazing on some grasslands have restored prairie vegetation over huge areas and increased grass cover by 40 percent.

The green drive has not only strengthened the country's forest resources, but also improved the ecosystem, SFA says. Statistics show that the number of terrestrial wildlife has been stable, with some species even recording a growth. In fact, more than 70 percent of the highly endangered wild plants have stabilized.

The shrinking of wetlands has been curbed, the area under soil erosion is down from 3.67 million square kilometres at the end of the 20th century to 3.56 million square kilometres, and desertification has fallen from more than 3,000 to just over 1,000 square kilometres a year.

But inadequate timber resources and moderate quality and unbalanced distribution of wood are still problems facing the country, Jia says.

Also, despite all the success of the eco-movement, the country's green cover is still only 60 percent of what an average country around the world has. And forest cover and per capita forest stock is one-fourth and one-sixth of the world average, with land erosion, desertification and loss of biodiversity still being serious problems.

Simultaneously, illegal timber felling and smuggling of forest products pose a great threat to the country's forests. SFA figures show that the number of such cases increased 4 percent in 2005 to about 400,000. Most of these cases, however, have been solved, and about 720,000 cubic meters of wood recovered and 6.6 million saplings planted to make up for the loss.

Jia says such illegal activities are a big threat to forest conservation, which has also suffered because of weak enforcement and ineffective management of green laws. Hence, he wants the green drive to focus on developing multiple forest products in future.

Farmers should be encouraged to protect the existing 290 million hectares of forests and 400 million hectares of grasslands. A better development of forest resources would not only meet the market demand, but also help farmers increase their income and improve their living standard.

Key national ecological projects will continue and should gain strength in the next five years, SFA says. Natural forest conservation, afforestation in the north, northwest and the northeast, combating sandstorms in and around Beijing and banning grazing on some grasslands are some of such projects.

Though these may help improve the country's environment to an extent, it's only the combined effort of all the people that can restore China's lost green glory.

(China Daily 03/27/2007 )