The greentrees are nestled in mountains and rivers, and the clear water surrounds cityand town. Jingzhou, a riverside city with a blend of ancient culture and moderncivilization, has always kept in mind the general secretary Xi Jinping’s wordssince the creation of the National Forest City, aiming to build a forest citycluster in a plain lake area. “Together, we stick to big protection rather thanbig development”, “develop ecological civilization and build beautifulJingzhou”. The ecological environment has been significantly improved, and thecitizens’ ecological awareness has been significantly improved. A forest city landscapefeaturing forest and city integrated, forest and water coexisted, forests androads connected, and forest and village accompanied is initially formed. Greentrees and pleasant scenery can be seen in downtown area, remote villages,highways (national roads, provincial roads), and country roads. “The color ofgreen” has become the main color in Jingzhou. In the minds of Jingzhou people,“the color of green” also means persistence and pursuit.
A combined force of Creation of a ForestCity (CFC) formed thanks to promotion from the government
Lucid Watersand Lush Mountains are Invaluable Assets. In recent years, the city has stuckto the goal of creating a national forest city, adhered to ecology going firstand integrated urban and rural development, allowing forests and the city todevelop hand by hand. To this end, the municipal party committee and themunicipal government have incorporated CFC into the city's ecologicalcivilization construction and plan of “co-created by five cities”, and painteda new picture featuring “Jingjiang River is the most beautiful among all alongthe Yangtze River”. Responsibilities are highlighted, investment is increased,and a powerful combined force of CFC is formed.
The municipalparty committee and the municipal government also set up a high level group forguidance of creating a national forest city and an organization committee ofJingzhou focusing on activities related with forest city, organized a series ofactivities, and formed a sound pattern featuring led by government,participated by the public, joint action performed at both city and countylevel, and advanced on the whole.
Based on theecological characteristics of forests and waters coexisting in the plain lakearea, the city has compiled the General Plan for the Construction of aNational Forest City in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province (2017-2026),proposing the plan positioning of “water town and forest city, EcologicalJingzhou” and Spatial layout featuring “four regions driven by one river, sixcorridors brought together by five veins, and multiple points merged by eightpoints”. It has implemented 20 key projects such as urban greening project andvillage greening project, painting a new picture featuring “Jingjiang River isthe most beautiful among all along the Yangtze River”. Under the guidance ofthe Plan, the wave of creating a forest city is on the rise across the wholecity, leading to continuous improvement in quality and quantity of forestresources, strengthened ecological protection and prosperous ecological culture.
Create an ecological barrier and carryout ecological projects
With ecologyas the soul, greening as the support, and creating urban landscapes andvigorously planting trees for forestry as an entry point for urbanconstruction, the city has vigorously implemented key national forestryprojects such as the Yangtze River shelter forest, precision land reclamation,construction of Schistosomiasis-Controlled Forest, protection and restorationof ancient and famous trees and wetland ecology, constantly expanded theconnotation and space of a forest city, and effectively promoted theconstruction process of forestry ecology, showing a new urban appearancefeaturing “the city is built in the forest, the water flows in the forest, andthe people walk in the forest”.
According tothe idea of “urban gardening, suburban afforestation, boulevarding roads andrivers, gardening of residential areas”, various greening projects have beencarried out in the downtown area. The urban green spaces and various types ofgardens such as the Guangong Yi Park n, Fantawild, the Garden Expo Park andLinjiangxian Park were newly built and renovated, and ecological corridors andscenic forest belts such as Jingsha River and Xigan Canal were built. The totalgreen areas in the downtown has reached 922.81 hectares. There are 14comprehensive parks, 23 community parks, 4 strip parks and 13 special parks.The urban green coverage rate is 41.74%, and the urban per capita green areareaches 12.78 square meters. Four new large-scale ecological parking lots werebuilt; 123 ecological civilization demonstration communities, 25 ecologicalculture demonstration enterprises and 39 green campuses were established, and aforest ecological system, a forest culture system and an urban forest supportsystem are basically formed.
In addition,the city also vigorously promotes channel greening, greening of the KouziTowns, afforestation of islands, village greening, farmland forest network,etc. by using “Forest Towns” and “Green demonstration Villages” as platforms.The greening rate of the centralized living villages in the city reached70.33%, while that of scattered residential villages reached 17.60%. 15townships were awarded as “forest towns in Hubei province” and 526 villageswere built into “provincial green demonstration villages”.
In order toimplement the spirit of important instruction by General Secretary Xi Jinpingduring his inspection in Hubei and Jingjiang, the city took the lead in theprovince to launch a campaign on afforestation and greening on both sides ofthe Yangtze River, implementing a series of projects including the YangtzeRiver shelter forest, afforestation on both sides of the Jingjiang River, theforest ecological construction inside and outside the Jingzhou ancient town,and the ecological landscape of the Jianghan Canal, strengthening theconstruction of greening of the channels and the construction of in-depth forestbelts around the lake. The road greening rate reached 85.57%, the urban roadgreening rate reached 100%, the river-type waterfront greening rate was 94.36%,the lake-type waterfront greening rate was 96.97%, and the forest andvegetation coverage rate of important water sources reached over 90%; 11national and provincial wetland parks were successfully established, includingHonghu Lake National Wetland Nature Reserve. Meanwhile, the structure of thetree species was adjusted, and 5,824,400 MU of the forest farmland was built,thus forming a criss-cross farmland forest network.
Since thecampaign of CFC, the average annual afforestation in the city reached over600,000 MU, the newly-built afforestation reached over 2.1315 million MU,and the forest area increases to 6.27 million MU. The forest coveragerate within the city has increased from 30.66% to 36.69%, with all indicatorsmeeting or exceeding the standards of creating a national forest city. 4national and provincial forest parks were built, with a forest protection areaof 12,200 hectares. Four national and provincial nature reserves wereestablished, with a protection area of 101,000 hectares and 4 species conservationcommunities were created, with a protection area of 285,300 hectares,effectively protecting the important rare wild flora and fauna species, wetlandresources and unique human landscapes and natural landscapes in Jingzhou. Thatthe forests “going into cities, roads, and villages” is increasinglyhighlighting the advantages of beautiful environment and ecological harmony,and it has become another beautiful business card for the city, showing thepotential of green development in Jingzhou.
Carry forward ecological culture andraise awareness of ecological civilization among the public
The city takes“everyone participates in the creation of a forest cite and shares theachievements of forestry development” as the starting point and foothold ofcreating a national forest city, and organizes and carries out rich andcolorful ecological and cultural activities. The support rate and satisfactionfrom the public for the construction of forest cities reached above 90%.
Extensivelycarry out the publicity regarding CFC. The “Work Plan for the Creation of GreeningActivities for Creating a National Forest City of Jingzhou City” was issued,more than 400 features for CFC were launched in conjunction with the media ofthe central, the province, and the city, and 230 issues of the briefings on thetheme were published. To actively carry out the CFC propaganda into thecommunities, countryside, institutions, schools, families, and enterprises, toset up large billboards themed by CFC in outdoor prominent locations such asentrances and exits of highways, first-class highways and national andprovincial highways. To set up the CFC propaganda column and posters in stationsquares, to play the CFC propaganda slogans and promotional films on largeoutdoor displays, and to play the CFC propaganda slogans on bus and taxidisplays. To set up the CFC publicity column and post propaganda posters oncultural and sports campus, medical and health centers, shopping and malls, touse the bulletin board, banners, and plaza activities to promote vigorouslypromote the CFC activities, and to create a good atmosphere for CFC. Thesupport rate and satisfaction from the public for the construction of forestcities reached above 90%.
Strengtheneducation on ecological culture. At the beginning of each year, the cityleaders took the lead in setting a good example and led the public to carry outvoluntary tree planting activities. The city has established 62 voluntary treeplanting bases, and responsibility exercising rate of voluntary tree plantingreached 93%. 13 new (expanded) scientific education bases and 15 ecological andcultural education bases have been built. The Weishui National Wetland Park inSongzi and the National Wetland Park Science Popularization and Education Hallaround the Ancient Jingzhou Town have been built. The Elk Museum in the SwanIslet Nature Reserve was built, with the Handbook of Ecological MoralEducation Activities published. Forest ecological identification systemsand science popularization systems covering plants, birds and wetlands inMingyue Park, Linjiangxian Park, Zhongshan Park, etc.
Vigorouslypromote ecological culture. During the key festivals such as “Tree-plantingDay”, “World Wetland Day” and “Bird Week”, the Municipal Greening Committee andthe Municipal CFC Office organized an eco-cultural publicity campaign and CFC10,000-person signature and CFC Cycling, CFC photography and calligraphycompetitions, etc. Forestry special festivals including the Changhu Lake Flowerand Wood Trade Fair, Jingzhou, Hubei, Peach Blossom Festival in JingzhouDistrict and Shishou City, and Jiangling Yellow Peach Festival were held everyyear. The general survey on ancient and famous trees were organized toestablish archives for 236 ancient and famous trees in the city, with aprotection rate reaching 100%. The city also organized selection activitiestheme by the City Tree and City Flower, and compiled and printed materials suchas Water Town and Forest City, Ecological Jingzhou Album, Ancient andFamous Trees in Jingzhou Album, CFC Painting and Calligraphy Collection,and Calligraphy Contest Collections. The city has also distributed200,000 copies of CFC Q&As and CFC brochures, actively cultivatedecological culture, carried forward ecological ethics, and deeply rooted theawareness of greening in the minds of urban and rural residents.
How lovely thegreen hills are, and one can see the green trees around the village. As a colorof life, the color of green means hopes, dreams, wealth. There is no end forthe journey of CFC. It is believed that with joint efforts of the people of thecity, the process of green development in the city will be faster, the constructionof forest ecosystem will be more intensive, and the construction of forestecology, industry and ecological culture will continue to make greaterachievements. Both urban and rural residents in Jingzhou will share more “greenwelfare” and “ecological dividend”.
Jingzhou,boasting a long history and profound culture, will embrace with the forestfurther, and is sure to be more harmonious and livable.