The Development Process,Current Situation and Prospects of the Conversion of Farmland to Forests and Grasses Project in China

The Conversion of Farmland to Forests and Grasses Project is the most symbolic and globally important ecological engineering effort to build the human and natural life community.After the call and mobilization stage since the founding of the People’s Republic of China,the first round of Conversion of Farmland to Forests and Grasses occurred at the end of the 20 th century.With the second round of Conversion of Farmland to Forests And Grasses launched in 2014,the central government has invested 535.3 billion yuan altogether by 2020,and 34.83 million ha have been returned to forest and grassland in 25 provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities)(2435 counties included).Among them,14.23 million ha were returned from farmland;barren hills and wasteland afforestation accounted for 17.53 million ha;and sealed mountain forest cultivation represented 3.07 million ha,accounting for 40%of the total afforestation area of national key projects in the same period,and 41 million households and 158 million farmers benefited directly.The project construction has made great achievements.The total value of ecological benefits has reached 1.42 trillion yuan,plus economic benefits of 0.26 trillion yuan,and social benefits of 0.73 trillion yuan,for a total amount of 2.41 trillion yuan.This effort has made outstanding contributions toward building an ecological civilization and a beautiful China.Looking forward to the future,the Conversion of Farmland to Forests and Grasses will embark on a new stage of high-quality development,which will strive to achieve high-quality construction,high efficiency and a high level of management.China will promote the third round of conversion of farmland to forest and grassland from 2021 to 2035,and it is expected to return 6.67 million ha to forests and grasses.

Review of Conversion of Farmland to Forests Project:Ranking First in Investment in the World

The Conversion of Farmland to Forests Project (CFF) is one of the six great forest ecological Projects inChina and one of the ten great forest ecological Projects in the world, ranking the third in overall scale and the first ininvestment. CFF was officially initiated in 2002, covering 1897 counties (county-level cities and districts) in 25provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities) of China. The whole investment is more than 40 billion US$ duringabout 20 years (from 1999 to 2017), aiming to form better ecology system in fragile ecology regions and effectivelycontrol the soil and water erosion of the Yangtze and the Yellow River and sandstorm of the Three-north Regions inChina. The experimental Project of CFF began in 1999, including Sichuan, Shanxi and Gansu province, and the scopeof CFF was widened later. About 1.16 million ha of farmlands were converted to forestlands, and one million ha ofplantation in mountains and wasted lands were completed in 3 years, involving 20 provinces (autonomous regions andmunicipalities), 400 counties, 27 thousand villages, 5.7 thousand towns, 4.1 million farm families and 16 millionfarmers.