Advances achieved in restoring environment

China revives abandoned mines, repairs coastline, wetlands over past 8 years

China has restored 300,000 hectares of abandoned mine sites and almost 1,680 kilometers of coastline since 2016, an official with the Ministry of Natural Resources said.

Lu Lihua, deputy director-general of the ministry's department of ecosystem restoration, made the remark in Beijing on Monday at an event ahead of World Environment Day, which falls on Wednesday.

The focus for the day this year is on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience, under the theme "Our land. Our future".

Over 50,000 hectares of coastal wetlands have been remediated across the country in the past eight years, Lu said.

"During the period, the country's mangrove forest has expanded by 12 percent, positioning China as one of the few nations that have experienced net growth in areas covered by mangrove," she said.

Lu said China has also rolled out 52 national major ecological remediation programs following the philosophy that mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands and deserts are a life community.

Adhering to problem-oriented and systemic governance, these programs have seen 6.7 million hectares of land remediated and treated, she said.

Lu also highlighted China's ecological conservation redline system, initiated in 2011, which encircles zones with crucial ecological functions and enforces strict protection.

The area protected by red lines across the country has reached about 3.19 million square kilometers, with 3.04 million sq km of land area, accounting for over 30 percent of the country's land mass, she said.

Addressing the event via a video link, Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said, "This World Environment Day, we are asking everyone to join the global movement to restore our lands to build drought resilience and to combat desertification, because land degradation and desertification affects over 3 billion people."

Freshwater ecosystems have also been degraded, making it harder to grow crops and raise livestock. This disproportionately affects smallholder farmers and the rural poor, she said, while adding that nature is resilient.

By restoring the ecosystem, she said the world can slow three crises — climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.

"We can help to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 in line with the global biodiversity framework, and we can get closer to keeping the global temperatures in line with the Paris Agreement by increasing carbon storage, including in the peatlands," she said.