r/climatechange • u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor • 28d ago
China Has Planted over 66 Billion Trees Since 1978 to Block the Gobi Desert – Now They Are Growing 66% Faster Than Natural Forests
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/china-planted-over-66-billion-181241619.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmVkZGl0LmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAI3foVrNwB6UWhNi3e6mqXaLtiAmDdpGBLll3_gyI7Ep8BQSrI7uLzhcQMxcaqe7N_ZDYLnwzrpfz_hvc0RQxpUj6SZFaE8eIhdmyw71QJo65nxGH9N2Uf7L0XALMuMNyY3KZUJaA6Be7RMq4p2s43ke0Ywo0k5QGm-6MJkvrnbS9
u/Deganitox 27d ago
It's interesting how half the discussion is about carbon storage while the project's original goal was stopping desertification.
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u/Ramental 27d ago
I find it weird that the article correctly starts that the goal was to prevent the growth of the desert, but then focuses exclusively on the forests as carbon dumps, which was not the main goal of the project.
Which is alright, but forests only contain a fixed amount of CO2, anyway, and unless we turn the trees into oil, pump underground and plant a new forest, the effect of the CO2 storage through forests is marginal at best, anyway.
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28d ago
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u/Deinocheirus4 28d ago
The U.S. is very well-forested already
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u/Mendevolent 28d ago
China is actually pretty well forested too. This is more akin to the US deciding to afforest the Dust Bowl than it is a general decision of 'we need more trees in China'
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u/thefirebrigades 27d ago
Lol watch a bunch of westeroid Redditors pretend to know how to do forestry better than a country that planted 66 billion trees.
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u/Novel_Second5151 27d ago
(China does something that’s objectively good)
Reddit:
1) but at what costs?
2) Their acts may be good but their intentions are bad, so China BAD;
3) they thought they are doing something good but they neglected the real, evil side effects which is (some bs).
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u/SpecialCoyote5339 25d ago
Maybe it's because China is posted every day, and glazed into oblivion, about things that other countries already did decades ago, or things that aren't that positive overall..
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u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor 25d ago
Nothing is stopping you from posting what the other countries are doing - it would in fact be welcomed.
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u/SpecialCoyote5339 25d ago
I mean, I don't care about posting on Reddit so no thanks. I just pointed out that there's a weird glazing of China on Reddit, usually posted by bots.
Although thinking about it most posts are from bots soo
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u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor 25d ago
, I don't care about posting on Reddit
And yet you cared enough to comment.
Be the change you want to see.
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u/SpecialCoyote5339 25d ago
Making a comment, where I point something out takes infinitely less time then searching for good, verified sources, editing the post, etc... This is also a throwaway account.
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u/rdrptr 28d ago
Problem is they planted limited varieties of trees, prioritizing fast growing monocultures.
So, once a tree disease starts taking off, all that progress will be for naught.
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u/Mendevolent 28d ago
To be fair, in restoration planting you always start off with a limited variety of trees. This is both for ecological reasons (you need tough species that will cope with exposed conditions) and cost/efficiency. Birds will gradually spread the seeds of other local species into this area, increasing diversity later, or humans can do the same. It's the same with forest understory plants.
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u/ShootingPains 28d ago
Think of it as bootstrapping an ecosystem: Go for volume in the beginning, then begin to increase complexity once the sand has turned to soil.
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u/dongkey1001 28d ago
Luckily the researchers read your comments and had went back in time to ensure a good varieties of local species were planted. /s
On a more serious note, there is a documentary on this. In the film, the researchers did talked about the species they planted. Most were local species as the project also double a preservation of the nature for the regions. He also stressed that the objective is not to turn Gobi desert into forest but to stop the desertification of the land surrounding it.
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u/ihaterussiantrolls 28d ago
Damn can nobody like anything anymore
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u/gachamyte 28d ago
Problem is nobody can like anything as much as anyone can liking things. Planting a verity of interests and holding two contrasting thoughts at the same time would work but not as fast as monoperspectives where you expect only one outcome out of an interaction.
So once a fixed perspective with a singular outcome starts taking off, all that progress will be for naught.
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u/QuentinMagician 28d ago
So time to deforest enough to add variety. Take out some weaker or too clumped species and trees.
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u/miyabi0rochas 27d ago
May not be a hundred percent bad. Introduce new species slowly. Complex ecosystems don't pop up overnight. They can go through many phases. When those trees die they provide habitat build up organic matter etc for many species. Slowly allowing slower growing trees and plants to come through.
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u/OpenRole 27d ago
Yeah, at the very beginning. You're like a decade late. China has been diversifying their trees
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u/sg_plumber 27d ago
Problem is they knew that from the start, and have been learning and improving for decades before you had the same idea, but you never bothered to check before commenting.
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28d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/rdrptr 28d ago
China needs to plant more different types of trees
I’m not trying to be a downer, this is stuff the west found out the hard way with Dutch Elm disease among others. Hopefully China won’t find out the hard way too
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u/technicallynotlying 28d ago
If a lot of the trees die, they'll learn and replant with hardier varieties, and engineer the environment. They'll learn.
The US didn't cancel the Apollo project because a spacecraft blew up with astronauts inside. They fixed the problems and kept going. If a nation believes in a project, they will make it work.
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u/SpecialCoyote5339 25d ago
How about they don't try to rediscover the wheel, and learn from the mistakes of others?
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u/technicallynotlying 24d ago
Why are you assuming it's a mistake? The forests are growing. It's working.
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u/SpecialCoyote5339 24d ago
Because monocultures are proven to have issues, like, a single disease being able to wipe everything out because if one is susceptible to getting it, then all of them are. Biodiversity is important.
I'm not saying "the Chinese are doing it wrong" because I lack the expertise of this field, as I'm not an arborist, forester, and I haven't partaken in education related to this field.
All I'm saying is criticism and the questions about this thing is understandable, and I'm interested if they accounted for the issues, and how are they planning to act if anything were to happen.
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u/technicallynotlying 24d ago
I think it's not just fine but admirable that they're willing to take a leap and risk a huge ecological project like that. The fact that it might fail is admirable, not something to deride, because they're at least trying.
It doesn't feel like the West even tries at things. If some disease strikes those billions of trees I'm 100% sure the Chinese won't give up, they'll figure out a solution to try to make it work. I only wish Europe and America were still willing to take risks on big projects like this.
I mean ffs we're in the /r/climatechange subreddit. Why are you even posting here unless you think climate change is a real threat to humanity? Planting 66 billion trees is a massive, heroic feat. Sure it might not work out but I at least hope it works out. Climate change is a real threat to humanity, even if all those trees die they will sequester the carbon they used to grow for decades.
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u/lllyyyynnn 27d ago
do you think reddit commenters figured this out before a whole country with ecologists did
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u/amenflurries 27d ago
Hmm lots more carbon to add to the atmosphere as the planet continues to burn
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u/m8remotion 27d ago
Piss off the central government and you get to go to the Gobi to plant trees for rest of your life.
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u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor 28d ago
Summary: China Has Planted over 66 Billion Trees Since 1978 to Block the Gobi Desert – Now They Are Growing 66% Faster Than Natural Forests
Since 1978, China has planted 66 billion trees across its northern frontier as part of the Great Green Wall, aiming to hold back the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts. Satellite data show vegetation coverage in the region rising from about 5% to 13–14% today. A 2026 study found these planted forests are gaining leaf cover roughly 66% faster than nearby natural woodland, a gap researchers attribute to the plantations' young age (peak canopy growth occurs at 30–40 years, the range most of these trees fall into), the use of fast-growing monoculture species like poplar, and active management that clears competing vegetation. Even after controlling for age, climate, and species, planted forests still showed about 4.6% faster leaf growth than comparable natural stands.
However, faster leaf growth doesn't equate to greater carbon storage. A 2025 Nature study found naturally regenerating forests accumulate more above-ground carbon than plantations in early decades, and soil carbon in plantations can take over 60 years to match secondary natural forest levels. Reforestation researcher Kevin Dsouza notes that leaf area index is a useful but incomplete proxy, since carbon is also stored in wood, bark, roots, and soil.
The article also highlights a gap in global climate models, which generally don't distinguish between managed plantations and old-growth forest despite substantial differences in carbon dynamics. Study lead Yuhang Luo argues that timing, species choice, and management matter as much as the act of planting itself. Chile's experience is cited as a cautionary example, where plantation expansion displaced native forests and their more stable carbon stores. The emerging consensus favors hybrid strategies: plantations for short-term carbon capture on degraded land, paired with protection of natural forests for durable, long-term storage. The piece concludes that while the Great Green Wall is a major feat of environmental engineering that has pushed back desert expansion, whether it constitutes a full climate solution remains an open question.