China restores 6.7m hectares of land in Shan-Shui Initiative

China has restored about 6.7 million hectares of land in a massive ecological remediation drive called the Shan-Shui Initiative.

The figure was released by the Ministry of Natural Resources at an Earth Day event in the city of Linyi, east China's Shandong Province, on April 22.

The Shan-Shui Initiative, meaning "mountains and rivers initiative" in Chinese, is the country's ambitious effort aiming to restore 10 million hectares of natural spaces, including mountains, forests, grasslands and waterways by 2030.

Charles Karangwa, the global head of Nature-based Solutions at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, hailed China's efforts by saying the country has made significant achievements in ecosystem conservation and restoration.

Covering 29 provincial-level regions, the initiative encompasses a total of 31 projects concerning the protection of the Yangtze and Yellow river basins, seven on the protection of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, and 21 for the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, according to the ministry.

It also includes 22 projects related to the development of western China, four on the revitalization of the northeastern China, four on the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and four on the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

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