Southwest China's Yunnan Province has set a 2030 goal to gradually restore degraded ecosystems in its dry-hot valleys.
The Yunnan Provincial Forestry and Grassland Administration announced the new implementation plan on Thursday. The valleys cover 15,400 square kilometers across 53 county-level areas in 13 prefectures and cities. They are mainly distributed across the Jinsha, Red, Nujiang, Pearl and Lancang river basins and account for about 40% of China’s dry-hot valley area.
The plan bans development in core protected areas and calls for closer monitoring of rare and endangered species, habitat restoration, stronger wildfire warning systems, and tighter control of forest pests and invasive plants. Yunnan will carry out greening work on at least 40,000 hectares annually, with restoration guided by water availability and local conditions.
The province also plans to develop more than 15 key counties for under-forest industries, expand crops suited to hot climates such as mangoes, citrus and coffee, and promote forest tourism without undermining ecosystem stability.
