Excessive reliance on afforestation in China's arid and semi-arid regions: Lessons in ecological restoration

For several decades, the Chinese government has pursued an aggressive afforestation policy in which vast swaths of arid or semi-arid land have been planted with trees. However, these policies have not always been tailored to local situations and in many cases only worsened ecological problems. "China's huge investment to increase forest cover seems likely to exacerbate environmental degradation in environmentally fragile areas because it has ignored climate, pedological, hydrological, and landscape factors that would make a site unsuitable for afforestation." Massive projects like the Three-North Shelter Forest Program have planted vast acreage with poorly suited, minimally diverse tree selections, displacing residents in the process. Desertification, dust storms, and land degradation continue despite these investments. "Large-scale and long-term research is urgently needed to provide information that supports a more effective and flexible environmental restoration policy."