China significantly expanded its ecological footprint in 2025, completing land greening work across 127 million mu, or 8.47 million hectares, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. The effort included large-scale afforestation and restoration of degraded grasslands, pushing the country forest coverage rate to 25.09 percent and total forest stock volume to nearly 21 billion cubic metres, reflecting China accelerating shift towards greener development.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period from 2021 to 2025, the country completed greening of 549 million mu of land, with afforestation accounting for 185 million mu. Each year, more than 46 million mu of degraded grassland were restored, keeping overall vegetation coverage above 50 percent. Healthy and sub-healthy grasslands now span 2.7 billion mu, representing over 70 percent of China’s total grassland area.
Authorities also treated 152 million mu of desertified land and placed nearly 28 million mu under enclosure protection, helping curb desertification and land degradation and achieve what officials described as “zero growth” in land degradation.
National Parks Anchor a New Conservation System
China has also largely completed the establishment of a new nature reserve system centred on national parks, which now protect around 90 percent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 74 percent of nationally protected wildlife populations. Over the past five years, the country has accelerated the development of a national park-led conservation framework that integrates ecological protection with green development and livelihood improvement.
With the release of a national park spatial layout plan, China began building what is being described as the world’s largest national park system. More than 120 existing nature reserves have been consolidated, resulting in the creation of five major national parks, including Sanjiangyuan National Park and Giant Panda National Park.
These parks provide unified protection for critical ecosystems such as the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, as well as habitats of iconic species like the giant panda, Siberian tiger and Amur leopard.
Conservation Linked With Jobs and Rural Incomes
Authorities have placed emphasis on balancing ecological protection with community development. Through ecological conservation jobs, relocation initiatives and concession-based operations, the five national parks have generated employment for nearly 50,000 local residents. Average annual wage incomes for these workers range between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan per person, helping align conservation goals with livelihood security.
China has also strengthened the legal and institutional foundations of its protected areas by developing a regulatory framework centred on one law and two regulations. Efforts have been made to clarify boundaries, reduce overlaps and resolve conflicts between conservation and development. A new national-level nature reserve has also been established at Huangyan Dao in the South China Sea.
As a result of these measures, China now leads globally with 19 world natural heritage and mixed natural and cultural heritage sites, along with 49 UNESCO Global Geoparks. Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period from 2026 to 2030, the country plans to further refine a unified, efficient and standardised nature reserve system, expand national parks in an orderly manner and implement projects to improve habitats, ecological corridors and biodiversity protection.
Alongside conservation gains, China’s forestry and grassland industries have continued to grow. In 2025, the sector’s total output value reached nearly 11 trillion yuan, with forest product imports and exports exceeding $180 billion. Annual forest food production crossed 240 million tonnes, and the industry directly supported more than 60 million jobs, underlining its rising role in income generation and employment stability.