A national tree-planting movement throughout China over the past two decades (1981-2002) saw volunteers plant 39.8 billion trees, increasing the forest coverage rate in China to 16.55 percent. While many countries in the world have seen a decline in forest resources, China has increased both the area and reserves of its forests and was listed as one of the 15 countries preserving the most area of forests by the United Nations Environment Programme.  In China, the area artificially afforested adds up to 46.67 million ha, or 26 percent of the world's total, ranking first in the world.

From 1998 to 2001, the Central Government invested 42.7 billion yuan in central and western China to protect vegetation, subsidize local farmers and promote projects transforming over-cultivated farmland back to forests and pastures. The project to reforest cultivated land has been implemented in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and centrally administered municipalities.

By 2002, the country had reforested cultivated land of 6.44 million ha, among which 3.18 million ha were transformed from cultivated land into forests and 3.26-million-ha forests were planted on barren hills and wasteland suitable for planting trees. The project has yielded results, and soil erosion in some areas has been brought under control. Another measure protecting forest resources is the Natural Forests Protection Project that began in 1998 that requires people around the country to stop cutting down trees. In many areas, former lumbermen have become forest rangers.

As stipulated by the Research Report on China's Sustainable Development Strategy on Forestry, by 2050, China's forest coverage rate is expected to reach 28 percent, with an added area of 110 million ha  of planted forest.