Guangdong's future comes with green tint

Guangdong has set the goal of turning all nine cities in the Pearl River Delta green by 2020, building the country's first conglomeration of State-level forest cities.

The province, a manufacturing giant, plans to increase its forest coverage from 58.8 percent to 60.5 percent in 2020, according to a government work report on the province's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

Guangdong Governor Zhu Xiaodan delivered the report at the opening of the annual local legislative session in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, on Monday. The session will last until Saturday.

Three of the nine Pearl River Delta cities - Guangzhou, Huizhou and Dongguan - have been given State-level forest city status by the State Forestry Administration.

To obtain the title, a southern city must have at least 35 percent of its land forested. A northern city must have at least 25 percent forested. Both must meet higher standards for ecological protection.

Chen Junguang, director of Guangdong Provincial Forestry Department, said it is achievable to develop the remaining six cities into State-level forestry cities in five years.

"Cities like Shenzhen, Foshan and Zhuhai are doing well in urban greening," Chen said. "Pursuing green development, Guangdong will change from directly using forest resources to fully playing on the advantages of the province's ecosystem to shift the focus from increasing the number of ecological projects to improving the quality of development."

Dongguan earned State-level forestry city status in November, becoming the third such city in the Pearl River Delta to do so. The industrial city invested about 3.35 billion yuan ($510 million) from 2012 to 2014 on greening itself, increasing its forest coverage to 37.4 percent. That's about 17.3 square meters of park green space per resident.

"Dongguan believes that ecological development can promote industrial transformation," Mayor Yuan Baocheng said when receiving the forest city title. "Dongguan used to be known as the world's factory, but now it is a beautiful, green city."

Dongguan's 14 forest parks attract more than 17 million visitors every year, 40 percent of whom are from outside the city, which shows urban people's growing craving for clean air and pleasant greenery, according to the forestry administration. Forest parks are also becoming popular tourist destinations in their own right.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan, 520 forest parks and 170 wetland parks will be built in Guangdong, according to People's Daily.

There will be no less than 10.8 million hectares of forest in Guangdong by 2020, according to the provincial forestry authority.