China's contributions to a greener planet

China alone accounts for 25 percent of the global net increase in wooded areas despite having only 6.6 percent of the Earth's vegetation space, according to a global study released in 2019.

The world has more vegetation than it did two decades ago, and that growth has been driven by Chinese forest conservation and planting.

In 1979, China launched the 3-North Shelter Forest Program with the goal of changing the landform in the country's north in 70 years by planting trees.

As of 2019, the program covered more than 74 million acres of land with forests and converted more than 82 million acres of farmland into forests, the equivalent of 1.5 billion basketball courts.

Alipay Ant Forest, a project launched by Alibaba's online mobile payment app, has 500 million users.

Through in-app rewards and interaction mechanisms with its users, the program plants trees in northwest China, covering a total area of 112,000 hectares and protecting 12,000 hectares of conservation land.