A forest planting work conference was held in the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone on Feb 25. The conference released a plan to plant 15 million trees in the pilot zone in 2013, Pingtan Times reported.

Local officials, including Gong Qinggai, director of the zone's administrative committee, and You Mengjun, the zone's deputy director, attended the working implementation meeting.

Gong noted that the pilot zone has made efforts to build a garden island, control wind and sand, encourage forestation and develop other green projects. To date, the green area in the zone has reached 6,866.67 hectares with all 37 million trees.

Gong also thanked relevant workers and officials for their contribution to the zone's efforts to build an ecological island environment.

Pingtan has plans to introduce more plant and flower species, optimize environment management mechanisms, organize more personnel training sessions, and provide more financial support. The zone will also launch more activities to encourage environmental protection among local residents.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Michael Thai