China picks up pace on Great Green Wall

China has kicked off a two-year push to speed up its Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, known as the Great Green Wall, aiming to finish 70% of the work by 2027 and wrap it up by 2030.

The National Forestry and Grassland Administration says the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) is crunch time. This year, it launched a two-year drive across three major regions of the project.

In the east, the focus is on grassland and livestock management and building modern grass-based livestock farms. In the center, crews are building forest and grass belts skirting the desert to restore the ecosystem along the middle reaches of the Yellow River. In the west, they are expanding vegetation along desert edges, using floodwater to support planting, bringing northern grass varieties south, and linking three protective networks.

The administration's latest figures show China has planted, improved or restored 265 million mu (about 17.7 million hectares) of land over the past three years.