Qiang Jian, Vice Director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry, said on August 7 that Beijing has honored its seven tree-planting targets, made in the Olympic bidding campaign. By the time the Olympic Games is held in 2008, there will be a striking improvement in plant coverage, with the city surrounded by trees and flowers.

Since the successful Olympic bid in 2001, guided by the concept of a "green Olympics," Beijing has stepped up efforts in tree planting to improve the city's ecological environment, Qiang said at the regular monthly press conference by China's State Forestry Administration.

There are a total of seven commitments in terms of tree planting. They are as follows:

Fulfilling Beijing's tree coverage rate of 50 percent. By 2006, the wood coverage rate had reached 51 percent, with woodland rising to 1.07 million hectares.

Reaching a forest coverage rate of 70 percent in mountainous areas. According to Qiang, by the end of 2006, the forest coverage rate in Beijing's mountainous areas had already reached 69.52 percent and in 2007, the rate will rise to 70.49 percent.

Increasing urban green coverage to over 40 percent. By 2006, the urban plant coverage rate had reached 42.5 percent. The green areas are composed of over 160 green lands in parks, covering an area of over 700 hectares, which provides citizens with more leisure and entertainment space.

Creating a 23,000-km-long green belt along the "five rivers and ten roads" (the five rivers are the Yongdinghe River, the Chaobaihe River, the Dashahe River, the Wenyuhe River and the north section of the Grand Canal. The ten roads include the  roads to Jingkai, Jingshi, Jingjintang, Jingshen, Shunping, Jingcheng, Jingzhang and the Sixth Ring Road of Beijing as well as the two railways of Jingjiu and Daqin). As the major project for the capital's ecological environmental protection, these green belts are expected to expand to 25,157 hectares by the end of 2007.

Forming three green ecological defenses. After 50 years of efforts in tree planting, over 95 percent of Beijing's mountainous areas will have been covered with trees by the end of 2007.

Building a 12,000-hectare urban greenbelt in Beijing. By the end of 2006, the urban greenbelt already covered an area of 12,641 hectares, with 30 million trees, arbors and shrubs.

Ensuring a natural conservation area no less than 8 percent of Beijing's land area. Currently, Beijing has 20 natural conservation zones, covering an area of 134,200 hectares, which is 8.18 percent of Beijing's total land area.

(China.org.cn)