◆Text by Cai Zuping

　　Translated by Manfield Zhu

　　Nanjing municipality has started to carry out six key great forestry projects to increase Nanjing's forestry acreage with the speed of 13,300 hectares per year.

　　It's a strong dream-like desire for every citizen to have a forest within a modern city or the city is located in a forest. "Green Nanjing Project" being carried out is such a future picture to show that Nanjing,the ancient capital, will turn an all-round ecologically green residence as a great urban community.

　　Developing greatly through Green Project

　　Green Nanjing Project's basic goal is rapidly to develop the forestry in large scale and improve it in quality. In Nanjing, there will be 93,300-hectare forest acreage, that is, the increasing speed is 13,300 hectares a year. Therefore, Nanjing municipality has started to carry out six key great forestry projects as its first effective step. All the forests will distribute around the urban boundary, along highways and rivers or lakes.

　　Actually, the shelter forest around the whole city is like a "Green lung". According to the project plan, the second-loop highway of Nanjing could be taken as the basic line with the forest belt, and on both sides of the main way, 100-meter-wide shelter forest will be built into a sightseeing one. Paralleling outside the forest belt, it's a flower and seedling nursery being over 100 meters wide, and the original farmland will be built into the forestry. Such an economic forest belt will combine the urban and the suburb forest belts into a big-circle Forest Park, 40,00-46,600 hectares in size.

　　Like colorful threads, green passages knit Nanjing. On both sides of eight highways from Nanjing to other big cities, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Hefei and so on, 50-100 meters wide and 300-km long forest belts will be established. In addition, from the very beginning of Nanjing, the 30-meter forest belt will spread on both sides of the 151-km national expressway and 484 provincial expressway. And near Nanjing suburb, a flower-seedling nursery, with 500-meter width, will be built up as an economic forest. So far 26,600-hectare forest has been completed according to the Green Project of Nanjing.

　　A green screen will be formed with the shelter forest to be built up around rivers and lakes. In the Nanjing section of the Yangtze Riverside linking with Tongjing Town of Jiangning District and Jingan Town of Qixia District, a shelter forest, 50-100 meters wide, will spread along both riversides of Qinhuai River and Qu River for 95 kilometers. A sightseeing shelter forest, totally 13,300 hectares, will form an ecological green screen standing on both of the 240-km-long riversides,and surrounding along the 180-km lakeshore of Gucheng Lake and Shijiu Lake. At present over 2,660-hectares green project has completed this year.

　　93,300-hectare forestry project will enrich the people. And the poplar forestry will increase for 40,000-hectare in all in accordance with the new development plan. The flower and seedling nursery will develop from 7,300 hectares to 2,300 hectares. Fruit forestry without effects of pollution, including tea, timely fruit and bamboo will reach 30,000 hectares with 1,330 hectares economic fruit forest. As a kind of commercial product, the timber will be presumably produced for 100,000 cubic meters. Selling the seedling of young trees in the whole city will earn $400 million in the first half of this year. And the farmers' income coming from their land rent and seedling sale as well as their service payment will reach $240 million due to carrying out the great project of Green Nanjing.

　　It's an ideal environment for the people to live in the Forest Park as an ecological central area where fresh air or oxygen will be made. There are five national and provincial Forest Parks to be improved, six ones to be newly built and two sightseeing forest campuses to appear in Tangshan and Pukou. With 6,667 hectares newly increasing forest being formed, the area of forest parks will be 21,300 hectares. Moreover, urban residents will be encouraged to diffuse to the suburb, and more and more people would like to make an investment to develop forestry. And two provincial forest parks will be established respectively both around Gold-Bull-Lake and over Green-Dragon-Hill, which will have the area of Nanjing's forest parks increase from 11,333 hectares to 14,667 hectares. And then, covering an area of 33,000 hectares, thirteen forest parks and ecological preserves will be built up.

　　It is necessary for all the forests to set up a fireproofing system in order to keep the forest resource in safeguard. 1093-km obstructing system will separate all the forests in which a prevention-and-cure system will be set up according to the general plan for the whole forest area.

　　To make a very good beginning

　　The Agriculture and Forestry Bureau of Nanjing is in main charge of building "Green Nanjing" by taking 87% assignment of the project in management, supervision and service.

　　1. The bureau members are clear to know what they must be responsible for. And they consider "Green Nanjing Project" as their first important task so that they organized an project- office for conducting the great project.

　　2. They are quite clear of what they are going to do and try to follow given policies.

　　In order to make a building program of "Green Nanjing Project", the bureau leaders visited Shanghai,Hangzhou,etc.for investigation in June, 2003. And then they were unambiguous to make a project plan draft for carrying out Nanjing Municipality's general demand of "Green Nanjing Project". Their plan draft was definite of the goal of Nanjing's forestry development from the present to the 2010-year. Seven years later, the total number or green vegetation acreage will be doubled in all in Nanjing. At the same time, six great projects are under way, including the round-the-city forest project, the green-passage project and so on.

　　And several necessary measures were provided for the municipality, such as financial support, "green-line" management, maintenance and encouraging policies to attract more and more people to commit capital for developing the forestry.

　　3. Make an executive criterion procedure and manage the project items strictly. As a great systematic project, it must be managed in a set of scientific ways, so the bureau made some effective measures to manage the bankroll or some other items of the Green Nanjing Project, such as something about supervising quality,checking and accepting the completed project items.

　　4. Pay much more attention to the key projects, which must be guaranteed in quality.

　　The key project includes an expressway to the airport, Hu-Ning expressway and Yong-Liu expressway. The bureau authority always manages to check the five key links of all the projects, that is, the project program must be practical, the soil to be planted with young trees must be flatted, the seedling must be qualified, and all the green things must be maintained after being planted. The bureau organized a special group in charge of supervising or checking all the projects in quality.

　　5. Serve well in all-round way. The bureau sent some experts to help Nanjing's districts or counties to make their project plan in detail or survey for designing an expressway to the airport and the like. After staring the Green Nanjing Project, the Bureau's leaders with officials would like to go to the instruction sites to serve for the project-building units. With their help various kinds of difficulties were overcome or solved, such as removing some seedlings, improving their executive plan and providing some facilities for the investing enterprises that need some land to be on move and so on and so forth.

　　Like a never-stopping tide, Nanjing is planting more trees.

　　On one hand, all the farmers are encouraged to plant trees to develop the forestry, on the other hand, all the citizens in Nanjing are organized to take part in obligatory activities of planting trees, namely, "Love-Feeling Forest", "Green Jiangsu" and "Green Nanjing" etc. All the activities are attractive.

　　And simultaneously, the municipality tries to mobilize all the social forces to join investing for building forestry. It was calculated that there were three kinds of capital invested by exotic investors, domestic investors and any other non-governmental investors. All the investors have made their investment of $ 650 million and built up 18,000 hectares forest, running thirty 67 hectares forest bases and three 333 hectares shelter forests along the Yangtze Riverside of Nanjing section.