Happiness Forest protects the Yellow River on World Earth Day
April 22 is World Earth Day. In order to protect the ecology of the Yellow River, more than 60,000 platycladus trees, purchased by netizens in China through a "planting trees by mobile phone" campaign, were planted on the banks of the Yellow River in Yichuan county, Yan'an, Shaanxi province.
This Yellow River Happiness Forest not only helps conserve water and soil, but also prevents mud and sand blocking the bank gullies and alleviates the quantity of silt in the river, which in turn will help ecological restoration and rural revitalization along the banks.
Ecological protection and the high-quality development of the Yellow River basin is a national strategy related to the great rejuvenation and sustainable development of the Chinese nation.
Since "Mother River Protection Day" was held on March 9 this year, netizens across the country have been accruing green energy points through green travel, paper and plastic reduction and other low-carbon behaviors at the website Ant Forest, which provided more than 6,000 tons of water for the Yellow River Happiness Forest.
Zhang Qiang, vice mayor of Yan'an city, thanked netizens from all over the country for their concern and support for the Yellow River's ecology, saying that this is not only a concrete measure to boost ecological protection and the high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, but also a practical action to protect the mother river. It has also created a new model for the ecological growth of Yan'an, which has jurisdiction over Yichuan county along the Yellow River.
Wang Xiaohong, the leader of Yichuan's professional afforestation team, is one of the leaders of the Yellow River Happiness Forest planting plan. Over the past decade, he and his team-mates have overcome all kinds of difficult conditions. They have insisted on digging out stones and soil on the steep rocky cliffs beside the Yellow River, and planting trees on the rough ground.
"With the support of netizens from all over the country, it's not a lonely job to plant trees on this cliff now," Wang said.
Over the past few years, Liu Shuangming, a netizen from Xi’an, capital city of Shaanxi province, has insisted on living a low-carbon life to save energy. He has planted more than 1,300 trees through his mobile phone and, on World Earth Day, he physically planted trees by the Yellow River for the first time.
Liu Shuangming realized his dream of "putting the tree species which are on his mobile phone in his hometown".
According to statistics, since the launch of the Ant Forest project in 2016, with the enthusiastic participation of more than 550 million people and the joint efforts of nearly 1,000 ecological partners and cooperative institutions, Ant Forest has planted more than 223 million real trees in ecologically fragile areas, 93 percent of which are distributed in provinces along the Yellow River.
Peng Yijie, president of Ant group's social welfare and green development group, said: "'Planting trees with mobile phones' has become a way of life for Chinese people to practice "low carbon + afforestation". At present, Ant Forest is still exploring new avenues. Through internet technology, everyone can participate in ecological restoration and biodiversity protection at a lower threshold and in a more diversified form, with the aim of realizing the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.
