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Beijing has vowed to establish three large-scale tree belts during
the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) to protect and improve the capital's
eco-system.
The city's forest coverage will reach 50 percent in 2005 from 43
percent in 2000, according to the director of the Beijing Forestry
Bureau Song Xiyou.
With an annual investment of 600 million yuan (US$72.3 million)
from the municipal government, the project will develop three different
green belts to protect the nation's capital.
In the hilly areas in the western, northern and eastern counties
of Beijing, a tree belt will expand the counties' forest coverage
to 70 percent. This will be the first green belt.
Trees will also be planted along the banks of five major rivers,
eight major highways and two major rail lines in Beijing, with a
combined length of 1,000 kilometers. Completion of this second green
belt in Beijing's more central flat areas is expected to increase
their forest coverage by 3.5 percentage points.
Within the sandy wasteland areas of the municipality's major rivers,
57,000 hectares of trees will be planted to help solve the problem
of sandstorms in the capital, according to Zhang Yunchang, an official
with the Beijing Forestry Bureau.
The second green belt will add 23,300 hectares of woodlands along
a 200-metre stretch on both sides of city roads.
Green belts along five highways, including the Beijing-Shijiazhuang
expressway, will be completed this year with a total area of 7,000
hectares.
The municipal government will give a 15,000 yuan (US$1,812) subsidy
per hectare of trees to investor in the "green road'' project.
The third green belt will be built between Beijing's third and fourth
ring roads, and it will cover some 240 square kilometers.
In 2000, 2,670 hectares of trees, shrubs and flowers were planted
inside the fourth ring road, exceeding the total for the previous
10 years.
Eight "green zones,'' including fruit gardens and forest parks
with a total area of 1,450 hectares, came into being last year.
Beijing has been working hard in recent years to improve the local
environment. The city added nearly 2,700 hectares of green space
last year and planted a total of 112,000 hectares of forest over
the past five years.
(China Daily 03/28)
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