Land Greening

Shaanxi is the first province and the "best province" in China to initiate the strategy of returning the grain plots to forestry and the grassland, with a total of 41.06 million mu (27,374 km2) land returned to forest and grassland. About 2.85 million mu (1,900 km2) farmland was returned to forest and grassland during the 13th Five-Year Plan. The protection of the natural forests is pushed onwards continuously, with 91.70 million mu (61,136 km2) natural forests rehabilitated, and an increase of 3.657 million mu (2,438 km2) public welfare forests by the Natural Forest Protection Project.

Shaanxi Province persisted in implementing the construction of protection forests in China's Northwestern, Northern and Northeastern regions, and Beijing-Tianjing Sandstorm Source Control Project. Altogether 5.25 million mu (3,500 km2) desertified land and 8.6 million mu (5,733 km2) of fixed or semi fixed mobile sandy land are under control. Shaanxi is the only province to have stabilized the moving sand land. Besides Baoji, other seven cities including Xi'an, Yan'an, Ankang, Shangluo, Hanzhong and Yulin have also successfully reached the national standards of the forest city.

Altogether 36.945 million mu (24,631 km2) forests were built in Shaanxi Province during the 13th Five-Year Plan. The forest coverage rate has risen to more than 45%, and the vegetation coverage rate in sand areas has reached by 34.8%. To the north of Yan'an, a revolutionary changes from yellow into green has already achieved, and the Loess Plateau with Northern Shaanxi as the core has become the greening area with the biggest growth rate in China. The green environment pervades in Yulin, Yan'an, the Guanzhong Plain, Qinling-Daba Mountain Range, and the whole Shaanxi Province.