210m trees planted in Beijing over four decades

BEIJING -- Over 100 million people have participated in Beijing's voluntary afforestation campaign, planting a total of 210 million trees from 1980 to 2020, local authorities said Friday, also China's Tree-Planting Day.

The forest coverage of the national capital rose from 12.83 percent to 44.4 percent during the period, with forest stock totaling 25.2 million cubic meters, according to information released by the Capital Greening Office.

The green spaces coverage of the capital's urban areas rose from 20.08 percent to 48.5 percent during the period, with the per capita green space area reaching 16.5 square meters, the statistics showed.

China launched the voluntary tree-planting campaign in 1981. Through decades of afforestation, China's forest coverage rate has risen from 12 percent in the early 1980s to 23.04 percent currently, said Liu Dongsheng, deputy director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.