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China Planted 78 Billion New Trees, and Seriously Messed Up Its Water Cycle (www.popularmechanics.com)

submitted 3 months ago by overstep8556@jlai.lu to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yes, I was shocked too. But in 1949 apparently 8.6% of the country was forested; in 2022 it was 24%.

In 2005 they launched the "Greening China" initiative to plant 13 Trillion (yes Trillion with a T) trees in 10 years. They didn't succeed but in 2021 the People's Daily claimed 78.1bn trees planted in 40 years Link.

However - China is known for inflating statistics to suit the communist party's own ends, and the People's Daily is part of the country's propaganda system. It's probably far less than 78bn, and that figure doesn't count replants and commerically logged trees. But it seems that whatever the figure there really has been a concerted long term reforestation effort in China.