Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 22 (Report) — Guan Zhiou, Director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (National Park Administration), said on the 22nd when discussing national land greening work that in 2023 China continued to advance scientific greening, completing 125 million mu of afforestation and grass planting/improvement, and treating 28.57 million mu of desertified and rocky desertification land.

This was learned by reporters at the national forestry and grassland work video conference held on the 22nd.

Guan Zhiou said that forestry and grassland work is currently in a critical period of improving quality and raising standards, and that on the basis of maintaining sustained growth in quantity, attention must be paid to placing equal emphasis on both quantity and quality. Differentiated management must be adhered to, with the Three-North region and the southern collective forest areas as the main battlefields, and overall efforts made to do a good job in this major undertaking of emphasizing both quantity and quality.

Specifically, the Three-North region should focus on fighting the three landmark campaigns well and strive to become a demonstration zone for scientific greening. The Three-North Project should firmly grasp the "bull's nose" of key projects, coordinate the integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, adhere to determining greening by water availability, matching trees to suitable sites, and integrating trees, shrubs, and grasses, and make every effort to increase and expand green coverage.

The southern region should take the implementation of collective forest tenure reform as a lever, promote appropriately scaled operations, support the development of industries such as under-forest economy, ecotourism, and forest health and wellness, encourage and support the scientific adjustment of tree species and variety structures, establish and improve regulations, standards, and policy measures for sustainable forest management, and strive to enhance forest quality and carbon sink capacity.