Compulsory tree planting is a sound concept but efforts 　　need to be made to resurrect this project
　　Planting trees is not only a feel-good exercise; in China it is something that is compulsory for all citizens. But despite legislation, it seems the message is not really reaching the grass roots.
　　In February 1979, the 6th session of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People’s Congress approved the resolution to set March 12 as China’s Tree Planting Day, aiming to encourage all citizens to participate in tree planting.
　　According to the resolution, male citizens aged between 11 and 60 and females between 11 and 55 should each plant three to five trees every year. This resolution made tree planting a legal obligation for those in this category.
　　Since China released the Resolution on Compulsory Tree-Planting Campaign in 1981, some 47.57 billion trees have been planted and although it proves the idea is a sound one, it seems to have deteriorated into a formality. Jia Zhibang, head of the State Forestry Bureau, said the tree planting campaign now mainly relies on state-funded forestation, complemented by private efforts.
　　
　　Being responsible
　　
　　“I come to plant a tree not because I am a minister, but because every citizen must fulfill his or her obligation,” said Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing while busy planting at Laozhuangzi County, Fengtai District of Beijing.
　　A team of 180 of China’s senior government officials gathered to plant trees in Fengtai on March 25. Some 2,600 trees were planted during the “Green Homestead Build-up,” now in its fifth year.
　　Minister Li said he participates in tree-planting every year and recalls that during the 13 years when he was stationed abroad he planted trees on three separate continents.
　　“Tree planting is not just a formality. We should guarantee every tree we plant lives, so as to protect our ecosystem,” he said.
　　Statistics show that more than 850 officials at the ministerial level planted some 10,400 trees in the last five years.
　　Liu Junhui, a worker from Beijing’s Daxing District, told reporters that while leaders are often seen planting trees on TV, it is more important for everyone to participate in this process.
　　He said tree planting is both an obligation and a hobby to him, just like growing a garden. Liu has no expertise in planting and nurturing trees, so he relies on advice from others and usually chooses tree seedlings that are hardy. “When I look at these seedlings growing taller than me, it feels just like watching my own child growing up,” he said.
　　In Beijing, citizens are busy with greening ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. On March 10, 1,500 Beijing citizens planted 1,000 trees, such as ginkgos, peaches, acacias and weeping willows, at the Olympic Park located near the North Fifth Ring Road.
　　The 680-hectare Olympic Park is a key forestation part of the 2008 Olympic Games project. According to the Beijing Greening Committee Office, the capital plans to plant 13.66 million trees of various types on an area of 9,000 hectares this spring. So far 2.46 million trees have been planted.
　　
　　Just a formality
　　
　　However, according to statistics from www.省略, compulsory tree planting is not being taken too seriously. In Beijing alone figures show about half of the 6 million citizens who should be planting haven’t done so over the years, which means around 9 million fewer trees each year in the capital. The situation in Yantai City, Shandong Province, was apparently even worse, with over half of those eligible failing to plant, resulting in a reported 100 million fewer trees over the past 20 years.
　　“Of course I know about tree planting day, but I had no idea that each person should plant three to five trees every year,” said Zhuang Jing of the Beijing International Studies University. She said she once joined in a tree planting activity, but to her it was more symbolic.
　　Zhuang still remembers that she planted a tree when she was a freshman and she did it under the watchful eye of a forest ranger. “Tree-planting activities are performed every year from the time of middle school, but in fact the number of participants is definitely far from those required, and school authorities never check on the participants.”
　　According to surveys of the National Greening Committee in 2001-03, only 45 percent of the qualified citizens fulfilled their obligations.
　　Zhou Lijun, Director of the National Greening Committee office, analyzed that the poor response can be attributable to four reasons. First, people fail to take compulsory tree planting as a legal obligation due to poor publicity. Second, due to poor organization, only 64 percent of work units can organize people to plant trees every year, 26 percent sometimes do it and 10 percent never do it. Third, many people change their jobs frequently, making it difficult to manage and organize numbers of planters. Fourth, the National Greening Committee at local levels, the legitimate units to organize tree planting activities, cannot monitor planting as they have no full-time staff.
　　In addition to these factors, added Zhou, the biggest problem is that rules on compulsory tree planting have not been amended in the past 20 years, and the regulations now lag far behind the demands of a market economy.
　　Zhou said China has undergone enormous changes and the number of farmers-turned-workers amounts to 120 million. These people all fall into the category of people who should fulfill the tree planting obligation, but they are beyond supervision. Meanwhile, many places around cities have already been afforested in the past 20 years, and to proceed further now with this process is difficult for urban dwellers.
　　
　　Survival is key
　　
　　How to guarantee the survival and grown of seedlings has turned out to be an important part of the tree planting operation. In many areas, there are no trees to be seen despite the fact that trees are planted in the same place every year. It seems that on tree planting day local authorities get busy investing in seedlings and manpower, but pay no attention to whether these seedlings can survive and grow. Some units even plant trees in the same plot of land every year, with very few trees surviving.省略tv.com, almost 209 hectares of land is reported to be afforested since the new Chinese Republic was founded in 1949, but the survival rate of trees planted stood at only one third.
　　Chang Jianghua, President of Qiqihar University of Heilongjiang Province, said trees are often planted just for the sake of going through the motions, but there is no planning or management thereafter. Compulsory tree planting should be included in the objectives of ecosystem construction and special bases should be built to raise the survival rate, he added.
　　Officials of Nanling Park in Guangdong Province believe that taking care of the trees should also be part of the tree planting campaign. On March 12, citizens of Guangzhou and Shenzhen drove to Nanling to identify trees for their personal tending, expressing their willingness to protect Guangdong’s ecosystem.
　　So far, identifying and tending a tree is popular in the province. Officials of the forestry bureau said the department would sign an agreement with a citizen on the tree they’d like to care for, and the tree will be named after the person.
　　Zhang Yuan, a Guangzhou citizen, said he usually planted trees with his colleagues and never went back to see whether they survived. It was his son who asked him about the condition of their trees when the weather changed. Now they can be sent pictures and information every quarter about their trees and monitor their growth.

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