Saihanba: Environmental Restoration

Saihanba is a Mongolian word meaning "beautiful mountain ridges and source of water." It is located on the plateau in north Hebei Province. In the past, Saihanba had plenty of water and lush pastures, dense forests and abundant wildlife. It was part of the royal hunting ground in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

However, large-scale reclamation and excessive logging began in the 1860s. Mountain fires and wars made the situation even worse. By the early 1950s, primitive forests were nowhere to be seen, and Saihanba had become a desolate wild land with a bad climate and serious desertification.

After the People's Republic was founded in 1949, afforestation began to attract increasing government attention. In the mid-1950s, Mao Zedong made a call to the nation to turn the country green. In 1961, the Ministry of Forestry decided to build an artificial forest farm in north Hebei, and Saihanba was chosen as the site. The following year, the Saihanba mechanized forest farm was set up. A total of 127 college graduates came from across the country. At the very beginning, together with local workers, 369 pioneers engaged in planting trees on this vast land.

Struggling against the harsh conditions, strong winds, and severe cold, three generations of foresters have devoted themselves to Saihanba. After more than half a century, they have built the world's largest area of man-made forest, across an area of 75,000 hectares with a forest coverage of 80 percent, which has effectively stopped the southward expansion of the desert in the north.

To balance economic development and environmental protection, the forest farm has adopted various measures. These include reinforcing management to ensure security of forest resources and significant ecological benefits, using self-raised funds and advanced technology to green the barren mountains and sandy land, improving the industrial structure, reducing lumber cutting quotas, and developing forest tourism, sapling nursery, and forest carbon sink projects. These efforts have turned the forests into a green bank that helps sustain the farm's further production, improve the workers' lives, and help the local people escape poverty.

When inspecting Saihanba in August 2021, Xi Jinping said that the forest farm's history is a saga of arduous endeavor. The workers have forged a spirit of staying true to their original mission, hard work and enterprise, and pursuing green development. They have played an exemplary role in national eco-environmental conservation.

By building a huge sea of man-made forest, Saihanba has set an example in eco-environmental conservation. The workers have won the Champions of the Earth Award, the UN's highest honor for environmental protection, and the farm has become a national model of poverty alleviation.

The experience of Saihanba proves that natural ecosystems can have their vulnerable and degraded areas restored, and that sandy land and barren mountains can become lush after persistent and science-based efforts. Green development can turn environmental strength into economic strength, and turn green mountains into mountains of gold.

塞罕壩生態(tài)修復(fù)建設(shè)

塞罕壩，蒙古語(yǔ)中意為“美麗的山嶺水源之地”，位于河北省最北部的壩上地區(qū)。歷史上，這里水草豐美、森林茂密、鳥(niǎo)獸繁多，曾是清朝木蘭圍場(chǎng)的一部分。從19世紀(jì)60年代起，這里開(kāi)圍放墾，樹(shù)木被大肆砍伐，加之戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)和山火等原因，到20世紀(jì)50年代初期，原始森林蕩然無(wú)存，退變?yōu)闅夂驉毫印⑸郴瘒?yán)重、偏遠(yuǎn)閉塞的茫茫荒原。

新中國(guó)成立后，國(guó)家十分重視國(guó)土綠化。20世紀(jì)50年代中期，毛澤東發(fā)出“綠化祖國(guó)”的偉大號(hào)召。1961年，國(guó)家林業(yè)部決定在河北北部建立大型機(jī)械林場(chǎng)，并選址塞罕壩。1962年，塞罕壩機(jī)械林場(chǎng)正式組建。來(lái)自全國(guó)18個(gè)省市的127名大中專畢業(yè)生，與當(dāng)?shù)馗刹柯毠ひ黄鸾M成了一支369人的創(chuàng)業(yè)隊(duì)伍，拉開(kāi)了塞罕壩造林綠化的歷史帷幕。

經(jīng)過(guò)半個(gè)多世紀(jì)的接力奮斗，三代塞罕壩人在這片風(fēng)大寒冷、人跡罕至的塞外高原上，成功營(yíng)造出總面積112萬(wàn)畝、森林覆蓋率達(dá)到80%的世界上最大的人工林海，有效地阻滯了內(nèi)蒙古渾善達(dá)克沙地南侵。為處理好經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展與環(huán)境保護(hù)的關(guān)系，林場(chǎng)通過(guò)嚴(yán)格管護(hù)、科學(xué)營(yíng)林，確保森林資源安全，并釋放其最大生態(tài)紅利；追加自籌資金，采用先進(jìn)技術(shù)在荒山沙地、貧瘠山地開(kāi)展攻堅(jiān)造林，增加資源儲(chǔ)備；優(yōu)化產(chǎn)業(yè)結(jié)構(gòu)，大幅壓縮木材采伐限額，依靠資源優(yōu)勢(shì)有序有節(jié)地發(fā)展森林旅游觀光業(yè)、綠化苗木產(chǎn)業(yè)及森林碳匯項(xiàng)目，使這片林海逐步成為林場(chǎng)生產(chǎn)發(fā)展、職工生活改善、周邊群眾脫貧致富的“綠色銀行”。

2021年8月，習(xí)近平在塞罕壩機(jī)械林場(chǎng)考察時(shí)指出，塞罕壩林場(chǎng)建設(shè)史是一部可歌可泣的艱苦奮斗史。塞罕壩人用實(shí)際行動(dòng)鑄就了牢記使命、艱苦創(chuàng)業(yè)、綠色發(fā)展的塞罕壩精神，這對(duì)全國(guó)生態(tài)文明建設(shè)具有重要示范意義。

塞罕壩成功營(yíng)造起百萬(wàn)畝人工林海，創(chuàng)造了世界生態(tài)文明建設(shè)史上的典型，林場(chǎng)建設(shè)者獲得聯(lián)合國(guó)環(huán)保最高榮譽(yù)——地球衛(wèi)士獎(jiǎng)，機(jī)械林場(chǎng)榮獲全國(guó)脫貧攻堅(jiān)楷模稱號(hào)。塞罕壩林場(chǎng)的實(shí)踐證明，對(duì)于生態(tài)脆弱、生態(tài)退化地區(qū)，只要科學(xué)定位，久久為功，自然生態(tài)系統(tǒng)就可以得到修復(fù)重建，讓沙地荒山變成綠水青山；只要堅(jiān)持綠色發(fā)展，就可以將生態(tài)優(yōu)勢(shì)轉(zhuǎn)化為經(jīng)濟(jì)優(yōu)勢(shì)，讓綠水青山成為金山銀山。