Speech by Dong Ruilong

When the People's Republic of China was established, Beijing had a poor environment, with a forest cover of only 1.3%. Beijing Municipal Government and residents attach great importance to tree planting and environmental improvement. Since the 1950s sustained efforts have been made in ecological rehabilitation and protection. The environment in Beijing has been improved and rehabilitated due to long-term unremitting efforts in tree-planting and mountain closure.

Urban forestry and environment beautification are a significant component of Green Olympic Games. As the backdrop of Green Olympic Games, Beijing 's environment reflects directly the concept of green and suitability for residence. In 2001 Beijing won a great success in bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games, which greatly enhanced Beijing residents' enthusiasm for urban forestry and environment beautification. It has become a common objective of Beijing residents to "make joint efforts in hosting Green Olympic Games and building a green homeland." Great endeavors and remarkable progress have been made in tree-planting and environment beautification in a bid to improve the environmental quality.

The forest (green) land area in Beijing totals 1.0533 million ha, with a forest cover of 51.6% and an urban green land cover of 43%. The per capita green land area in Beijing is 48 square meters, while the per capita common green land area is 12.6 square meters. The gross carbon storage of forest resources in Beijing totals 110 million tons, while the annual carbon dioxide fixed by forest resources is about 9.67 million tons and the annual release of oxygen reaches 7.06 million tons. Three green ecological shelters have been established in the city proper, plain and mountain area, which gives rise to a scenic landscape with green hills and forests surrounding the city and green seas of pastoral land covering the suburbs. We have achieved our committed objective of urban forestry development in our report on bidding for the Olympic Games, which paves the way for the success of the Olympic Games.

I. Three green ecological shelters have been established in and around Beijing and improved the local environment.

In 2001 Beijing won a great success in bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games. Beijing made a commitment that three green ecological shelters would be established in and around Beijing . According to the master urban planning program of Beijing , a 126-square-kilometer greening shelterbelt has been established, which gives rise to a greening corridor surrounding the city. In 2007 fifteen suburban parks covering 722.8 ha were established based on the greening shelterbelt. The public have had free access to them since May of this year. Restructuring has been made to the green area in the greening shelterbelt. Sports and entertainment facilities have been added so that the residents can directly enjoy the benefits of greening endeavors.

Dense greening shelterbelts have been established along the roads and rivers, with their width ranging from 30 to 200 meters. By the end of 2007 greening shelterbelts covering 25 , 000 ha have been developed along the 5 major rivers and ten key roads. When you drive along the highways like Beijing-Shenyang, Beijing-Zhangjiakou and Beijing-Chengde, or enter or leave Beijing by train, you will notice the greening shelterbelts made up of trees and flowers and grass, which gives rise to a spectacular green corridor.

A number of ecological improvement projects have been implemented in the mountain areas, including the Sand and Dust Storm Control Project, Ecological Rehabilitation Project for Mining Areas, Development Project for Water Conservation Forest, Mountain Closure Project, Afforestation by explosives, Tending Project for Young and Middle-aged Forest, Improvement Project for Low-yield Forest and Development Project for Nature Reserves, which further intensify the green ecological shelterbelts in mountain areas, with a forest cover of over 70% for mountain areas and the area of nature reserves exceeding 8% that of the urban land area. A total of 46,000 farmers has become rangers of ecological forests following training, maintaining the forest land and consolidating the achievements in greening endeavors.

For the past 7 years , 95% of barren hills in mountain areas have been turned into green, which gives rise to a dense green ecological shelterbelt surrounding the city. A dense and magnificent high-standard shelterbelt network has taken shape in the plain area, with the green ecological corridor at the core and supplemented with dots, lines, parts, belts, networks and patches. The green ecological shelterbelts have facilitated the achievement of the objective of green surrounding Beijing .

II. Focusing efforts on key greening projects so as to offer a scenic environment for the Olympic Games

A total of 160 greening projects for 31 stadiums, 45 gymnasiums and connecting lines for roads have proceeded well for the Olympic Games, with a total area of 1,026 ha turned into green, 370,000 arbors, 2.1 million shrubs and 4.6 million ha of vegetation planted. All the projects have wound up. The green landscape development project covering 680 ha in the Olympic Forest Park, the Core Area of the Olympic Park and National Avenue has almost come to an end. In order to ensure the green landscape effects during the Olympic Games, construction has been going on all year round. In addition, all the advanced techniques and methods available have been applied to ensure the quality of off season construction, with the survival rate of seedlings exceeding 99%.

III. Improving urban forestry so that residents can enjoy a green life style

In recent years Beijing Municipal Government has taken into consideration the livelihood demand of residents and required that each district should develop 1-2 large scale green land plots annually. Meanwhile open space has been fully utilized to develop small green parks in accordance with the reality of residential districts so that residents can have access to parks and green land areas 500 meters away from their homes. In addition, various approaches have been adopted to create more green for downtown areas, including greening on roofs and developing green-covered parking lots, so that residents can enjoy a green life style while enjoying the modern life style and prosperity of big cities.

There are not only high rises and the magnificent royal palace in Beijing city proper, but also weeping willow trees along Changpuhe River , towering old trees in the Temple of Heaven , green city walls along the 2nd Ring Road and the Landscape Avenue along the 4th Ring Road. A large open green area covering 10,000 square meters has been developed along the Finance Street where each inch of land is incredibly expensive. A lotus pond covering 10,000 square meters has been rehabilitated at Lianhuachi that has been deserted for years, hence the scene in previous years when "gentle breeze mixed with lotus fragrance flows" has been recreated.

During the period 2001-2007 the green land area in Beijing rose by 10,000 ha, trees increased by 22.71 million and lawn area grew by 46.53 million square meters, which greatly improved the environment in the city proper by sequestrating 211,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

IV. The entire society is active in participating in and supporting greening endeavors because of residents' enhanced awareness of greening.

On the annual Tree-planting Day in Beijing , Party and State leaders take the lead in taking part in the Voluntary Tree-planting Campaign, which greatly encourages all walks of life to take initiatives to get involved in greening activities. Leaders from the National People's Congress, the National Political Consultative Committee, 100 marshals and officers and soldiers from PLA and armed police, as well as 100 ministers and officials from the central government institutions participate in the voluntary tree-planting activities. Thousands of residents go to the suburbs each year to turn barren hills green. According to the statistics, a total of 168 million trees have been planted by local residents since the Voluntary Tree-planting Campaign was initiated in 1981.

In order to honor their obligations for tree-planting and make contributions to the greening efforts residents usually adopt a tree or a green plot if they do not have opportunities or conditions to go planting trees. In 2007 a total of 146 plots of green land covering 357 ha and 44,000 trees were adopted by local residents.

Local residents are also active in participating in various greening and environment beautification activities. They take initiates in greening the yard and residential area of their employers. By the end of 2007 ten landscape satellite cities, 46 landscape towns, 4,951 garden-like institutions, 3 national model greening cities and 2 national model greening counties have been established across Beijing .

A total of 463 institutions in the city proper have worked together with 277 villages in carrying out the “Joint Efforts for Building New Countryside” activity. They have helped each other in greening endeavors so as to make the suburban area greener and more beautiful.

The Voluntary Tree-planting Campaign has enhanced local residents' awareness of greening and improved their living and working environment. It has bridged the city and countryside, promoted the overall arrangement of resources, and given rise to a large number of model representatives devoted to the greening undertaking.

I would like to mention that the greening undertaking has received not only support from all walks of life in Beijing , but also assistance from international community. Seventeen forestry cooperation projects have been implemented jointly with 11 countries (including Germany , the U.S. , Japan and the Republic of Korea ) and 3 international organizations (including WWF), which greatly facilitate the greening campaign in Beijing . The theory and techniques of healthy forest management have been extended through developing international cooperation, hence the carbon sequestration function of forests of Beijing have been enhanced.