Shenzhen, Zhongshan were awarded the title of "National forest City” on October 15th, following in the footsteps of Guangzhou, Huizhou, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhaoqing, Foshan and Jiangmen, other Pearl River Delta cities to have previously been awarded this title. By 2020, the PRD will have become China’s first national forest city cluster.
In 2008, Guangzhou took the lead in becoming the province’s first “National Forest City”, with more cities in Guangdong making an effort to follow suit.
Currently, there are 18 cities striving to achieve “National Forest City” status, pushing forward their environmentally friendly and livable urban environment.
In regards to the establishment of these ‘forest’ (green) cities (as they are known in Chinese), the PRD has a lot of useful experience in the fields of forest ecological barriers, ecological corridors, forest ecological services, and natural ecological culture. In the past three years, 70 towns and streets have been identified as “Guangdong Forest Towns”. In respect to better education on environmental issues, 341 ecology education sites have been established.
According to the Forestry Administration of Guangdong, the PRD has added 135 forest parks, 442 street parks and 110 wetland parks to its environment since 2013. At present, 482 forest parks have been opened in the Pearl River Delta, and they are open to the public for free.
The ecology of many PRD cities has been improved thanks to this project. In Shenzhen, this has meant the ‘greening’ of roads, and flower planting.
Shenzhen’s wooded area is now 40.68 percent of the total, the green land area reaching 15.95 square meters per capita. The city has a total of 2,443 kilometers of greenways and 942 parks.
Zhongshan has invested 7.38 billion Yuan in afforestation and greening, with 35.48 percent of the city designated a wooded area, and the green land area reaching 18.62 square meters per capita.
Guangdong will begin to work towards creating the Pearl River Delta national forest city cluster, including key projects such as the ‘Guandong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Water Bird Ecological Corridor’ and the ‘PRD Ecological Corridor’.
Reported by Will
Edited by Simon
