From the “Ten Thousand Million Project” to “Ant Forest”

The “Green Governance” China program is recognized by the world.

From beautiful countryside to technology planting trees. After the “Demonstration of Thousands of Villages and Renovation of Ten Thousands of Villages” project carried out by Zhejiang Province for a long time last year for 15 years, it won the “Guardian of the Earth Award (Award for Incentive and Action Category)” issued by the United Nations Environment Programme. On the 27th, Beijing time, Alipay Ant The forest also won this honor.

For the third year in a row, this top-tier United Nations environmental award has been presented to green innovations and key actors from China. From the three generations of forest rangers in Saihanba, to Zhejiang Province’s “Ten Thousand Million Project,” to Ant Forest, China’s innovative approaches and valuable experience in advancing green environmental protection are now being recognized on the global stage.

Environmental awareness behind a tree

This is a small county town in the northwest that can only speak with the wind. However, a mobile phone planting application has changed the state of the struggle between generations of people here. Minqin County, under the jurisdiction of Wuwei City, Gansu Province, is covered with deserts on three sides. The wind is strong and the trees are bald. If you speak in the wind, you will eat the sand. Only one species of Haloxylon ammodendron that is particularly adaptable to saline soil can survive.

Since 2016, whenever a user “stamps” a virtual sapling in Alipay’s Ant Forest, a Haloxylon tree is planted in the local Haloxylon forest. Over the past three years, roughly 500 million people have “planted” 122 million real trees through this mobile app. On average, about 110,000 trees are planted in deserts such as Minqin County every day.

“Three years ago, on the day my child was born, the Haloxylon tree on the mobile phone was also planted.” Jiang Shengjue from Fujian walked with his wife every day during her pregnancy, accumulating a lot of “energy” in the ant forest. When the child was born, he happened to grow a virtual shuttle tree in the ant forest on the phone.

In Alashan, Inner Mongolia, a genuine Haloxylon tree has been planted in this severely desertified region for nearly the same length of time. The birth of a child and the birth of a tree are separated by more than 2,400 kilometers yet remain intimately connected.

Because the child was still young, Jiang Sheng could only take the child's photo to Alxa to see the tree connected to his destiny. He hopes that when the child understands, tell him the story of this tree, so that the child will know how to protect the earth from an early age.

How did a virtual tree on the phone become a real tree thousands of kilometers away?

Carbon emissions saved by users through activities such as walking instead of driving, paying utility bills online, and refusing to use disposable tableware and plastic bags are converted into virtual “green energy,” which can be used to grow virtual trees on their mobile phones. Once the virtual tree has grown, Ant Forest and its public-welfare partners will plant a real tree somewhere on Earth or protect an equivalent area within a nature reserve.

Although the trees planted through the Ant Forest initiative represent only a small fraction of the country’s total artificial afforestation, its value lies in inspiring hundreds of millions of people to embrace public welfare and environmental protection.

Eighty grams represents the carbon emissions saved by taking a bus once, while 52 grams corresponds to riding the subway. A shared bike, by contrast, saves just 1.8 grams per minute. The more steps you take, the more “green energy” you accumulate... Shen Junliang, a post-90s resident of Hangzhou, discusses the appeal of Ant Forest. Its rise has become almost second nature: “It’s not an alarm clock that wakes me up every day—it’s a green game called ‘Ant Forest,’” Shen says. He has since developed the habit of getting up early each morning to collect green energy.

is also awakened by his environmental awareness. For 3 years, he kept running every day, harvested "green energy", and planted 13 real trees in the desert. Now he has become an environmental engineer and has been fighting in the field of environmental protection. "Everyone hates smog and loves blue sky. Most people are willing to do something to reduce smog, but it is difficult to persist. Because of the immediate positive feedback from Ant Forest, I persevere." He said.

Green spaces behind cities alleviate poverty.

For most tree planters in Minqin County, planting trees is not a belief. First, it is the opportunity and hope to solve the life of the whole family. There is an immigrant village near the county seat. It has just moved down from the mountain at the beginning of this year. It is not a problem for children to go to school, but it is still very difficult for a family’s labor force to find a job.

However, today all the adults in the village are enthusiastically planting an “ant forest.” In practical terms, Ant Forest has to some extent boosted employment and economic development in China’s impoverished regions. As of August 2019, Ant Forest had created more than 400,000 green jobs—ranging from tree planting and maintenance to patrol duties in protected areas—resulting in an increase in labor income exceeding RMB 60 million.

Nie Yusheng, a herder from Alashan in Inner Mongolia, is one of them. He now works as a forest ranger for Ant Forest, overseeing more than 2,000 hectares of forest.

“Unexpectedly, an ordinary herder like me can also participate in helping change the environment. In just three years, the land I live in has become greener. There is also my work here.” 57-year-old Nie Yusheng said.

Since 2018, the Alibaba Eco-Poverty Alleviation Team has leveraged the Ant Forest platform to help local communities achieve sustainable, participatory, and replicable poverty alleviation and prosperity through two models: “public welfare protected areas” and “ecological economic forests.”

Qingshuihe County, one of the poorest counties in Inner Mongolia, has seen 10,000 mu of sea buckthorn planted through the Ant Forest initiative become a “cash cow” that is helping local residents escape poverty. County Mayor Kang Yongqiang stated: “The Ant Forest not only helps combat desertification but also delivers tangible benefits to the local community. By harvesting sea buckthorn, villagers can earn as much as 40,000 to 50,000 yuan per year.”

In addition, there are more ways to diversify local economic development. In March this year, a couple from Zhengzhou, Henan went to the Alashan Desert in Minqin, Gansu to take wedding photos. The bride said that she planted a tree after harvesting energy for half a year and wanted to see it. Among so many trees, she planted one tree.

You Shengde, who runs a travel company in Hangzhou, discovered that many people who play Ant Forest will have the idea of "seeing on the spot". He spotted this opportunity, negotiated with Ant Forest, and organized a group of tourists to visit the Ant Forest in Alashan, Inner Mongolia. They tried to use travel to integrate into the local economic development.

In a statement by Inge Annoson, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, the word “innovation” was mentioned numerous times. Like Alibaba, an increasing number of Chinese Internet companies are leveraging technology to harness the positive energy and innovative initiatives of global users, thereby transforming our world.

The sonorous voice of “green governance” in a country

In April last year, an official from the United Nations Environment Program visited many places in Zhejiang and spoke highly of and admired Zhejiang’s green development achievements. He said: “What I saw in Pujiang and Anji, Zhejiang, is the future of China. Appearance, even the appearance of the future world."

Zhejiang is just a microcosm of China's voice of "green governance" to the world. In the satellite images and data released by NASA in February this year, we see that China is becoming more and more "green." Over the past 20 years, more than 2 million square miles (about 518 million hectares) of vegetation have been added to the surface of the earth, which is equivalent to an extra piece of Amazonian rainforest. The main contribution to this is the leading and promoting role played by China and India.

According to researchers at Boston University, China and India account for only 9% of the global land area, but they contribute as much as one-third of the global green area growth. The data provided by the study also showed that the newly-added green area in India mainly comes from agriculture, accounting for 82%; while 42% of the newly-added green area in China comes from tree planting and afforestation.

In recent years, China’s concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” has been endorsed by the United Nations, and China has elevated the building of ecological civilization to an unprecedented level.

Kumar, a professor of environmental protection at the University of Delhi in India, stated that China’s proposal of ecological civilization is an important component of the country’s overall governance strategy and also constitutes the green governance element of China’s global governance initiative.

In fact, whether it is a “ten-million project” or an ant forest, the logic behind it is the relationship between economic development and ecological environmental protection. Develop while protecting, and protect while developing.

China’s “green governance” initiative is now expanding internationally. Inspired by Ant Forest, on June 25, 2019, GCash—a mobile payment platform often referred to as the “Alipay of the Philippines,” with 15 million users—launched “GCash Forest” to encourage citizens to engage in environmental protection and reforestation. Notably, this marks the first time that a Chinese enterprise’s digital-tech-driven public welfare model has been rolled out overseas.

Leveraging Alipay’s technological support, the Philippine version of “Ant Forest” enables local users to accumulate green energy through eco-friendly, low-carbon lifestyles, plant a real tree, and ultimately cultivate an entire forest.

“The development of digital technology for public good knows no borders. A beautiful living environment is the shared aspiration of people around the world, and it is also the greatest legacy we can leave to future generations,” said Jing Xiandong, Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial, today. He added that the spirit of “Guardians of the Earth” should be passed on to young people, as it is their participation and drive that have made Ant Forest the world’s largest platform for individual engagement in environmental governance.

Article source: Environmental Protection 114