Guests plant the first sapling of the tree planting event at Baiyun Mountain on March 10th, 2019. [Photo/Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province]

The Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province held a tree-planting event at Baiyun Mountain, Guangzhou, on the morning of March 10th, 2019, two days before the Arbor Day.

More than 300 people attended the event, including Olympic badminton champion Zhang Jiewen and a three years old child, though it was raining cats and dogs that day.

A mother and daughter take part in the tree planting activity. [Photo/Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province]

All individual participants and representatives of each participating family received a certificate for voluntary tree planting issued by the national afforestation committee.

If you also want to contribute to global greenery expansion, more tree planting events are still ongoing in Guangdong. What are you waiting for? Come join the campaigns to do your bit for environmental protection.

Participants pose for a photo at the tree planting event. [Photo/Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province]

1. Yuexiu Park (Guangzhou)

Sign up: On the morning of March 17th, 2019

Plant tree: 9:30, March 18th, 2019

Venue: Nanxiu Porch, Yuexiu Park

Fee: 168 RMB per tree (including fees for the sapling, its transportation, supplies for making wishes, and renting tools)

Metro: Take Metro Line 2 and get off at Yuexiu Park station.

Yuexiu Park [Photo/Xiao Xiong]

2. Nansha Wetland Park (Guangzhou)

Sign up: Till April 29th, 2019

Plant tree: March 1st – April 30th, 2019

Venue: One kilometer away from the entrance of the park’s second phase

Fee: 60-120 RMB per person

Metro: Take Guangzhou Metro Line 4 and get off at Jiaomen station, then take Bus No. 2 (Nansha) and get off at Baiwan Kui Yuan (Sunflower Garden) Bus Terminal, then transfer to Bus No. 11 (Nansha) and get off at Nansha Wetland Park.

Nansha Wetland Park [Photo/Liang Wenxiang]

3. Shenguang Mountain (Meizhou)

Period: Until the end of April

Venue: Inside the Shenguang Mountain Scenic Area

All, family, individual or company, are welcome to take part in the tree planting event; Please make an appointment with the scenic area administration at least five days in advance; Participants can take their own saplings, or ask the administration for their favorite trees beforehand.

 

Zhongshan [Photo/Ye Zhiwen]

Guangdong’s persistent efforts in afforestation

Guangdong, accounting for about 1.87% of the country’s total land area, has been working hard to make the province greener.

Since the national tree-planting campaign was launched in 1981, a total of 960 million people have taken part in the exercise in Guangdong and planted 4.13 billion trees across the province.

The province’s forestry administration and bureaus take the lead in greening and organize a series of tree planting activities every year. They also launched exclusive webpages to promote afforestation online, and carried out 108 tree planting events across the province between 2015 and 2018.

At present, the forest coverage rate reaches 59.08% in Guangdong, forest stock volume totals 583 million cubic meters, per-capita park green area measures 17.02 square meters, the green area ratio of the built-up areas and the green coverage ratio are 42.54% and 38.94% respectively.

Mangrove Wetland Park in Daya Bay, Huizhou. [Photo/Wang Changhui]

The province also boasts of having the largest mangrove coverage in China, with a total area of 18,641 hectares, according to a recent forest survey.

According to the Department of Natural Resources of Guangdong province, the mangrove area is composed of 14,224 hectares of mangrove forests, 46 hectares of mangrove plants that have not yet developed into a forest, and 4,371 hectares of shoals suitable for mangroves, China Daily reports.

Reported by Monica Liu

Edited by Olivia Yang