Shenzhen is planning to plant 5 million trees by the end of June to make the city greener.

Lai Zhiping, director general of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, unveiled the plan at a conference Wednesday to mobilize city residents to join the tree-planting campaign this year.

To initiate the campaign, more than 300 Shenzhen women representatives from all walks of life planted 5,000 trees in the mangrove forest park in Futian District on Tuesday, the International Women's Day.

Top city leaders and all public servants with municipal government departments will take part in a tree-planting campaign at Shenzhen University Town in Nanshan District next Wednesday.

The Shenzhen Municipal Forestation Committee, a subsidiary institution under the bureau of agriculture, forestry and fishery, is also planning to organize a large voluntary tree-planting campaign at the Yangtai Mountain Forest Park in Bao'an District at the end of this month.

'We'll announce details about the campaign's exact schedule soon, and all city residents, including expatriates, are welcome to join the campaign,' said Li Ying, an official with the forestation committee office.

Over the past two decades, many people have participated in tree-planting since the country set March 12 as a Tree-Planting Day in 1979 to commemorate Sun Yat-sen, China's democratic revolution forerunner, who died on that day in 1925. China launched the national voluntary tree-planting campaign in the early 1980s.

According to a 1981 resolution by China's top legislature on the campaign, every healthy Chinese citizen older than 11 has a duty to plant three to five trees each year. People are allowed to pay 20 yuan (US$2.4) for each tree to the forestation commission if they are too busy to attend the tree-planting events.

Last year, a total of 5.74 million trees were planted in the city.

The city government plans to build one or two forest parks and open them to the public this year. More than 15 forest parks will be built in the city by the end of 2010. 

2005/03/11
Source: Shenzhen Daily