China Has Planted over 66 Billion Trees Since 1978 to Block the Gobi Desert – Now They Are Growing 66% Faster Than Natural Forests

The headline is grossly misleading.

Here is the link to the original report:

As a reason why planted forests grow faster (and why it has a bad long-term effect on the climate) it says,

Planted forests ... tend to feature fast-growing species like eucalyptus and poplar and are often actively managed, with people removing competing vegetation and even fertilizing them. These interventions reduce competition for light, water, and nutrients ... This discrepancy peaks in planted forests when trees are around 30 to 40 years old and then declines noticeably after age 40. In contrast, natural forests grow more slowly but steadily, so have an advantage over the long term.

From 2000 to 2020, China experienced a net change of 2.1 Mha - that's 0.96% - in tree cover, according to Global Forest Watch.

To get a full picture: China has historically a net rate of forest loss, but since 2000 it has implemented a series of large-scale forest restoration programmes that gained it a positive tree cover rate (although this doesn't necessarily contribute to the fight against climate change, as the Chinese study cited in the article also says).

But at least China's record of reforestation is positive regarding tree cover in this millenium.

However, when it comes to the deforestation linked to China's imports, the picture is far worse. China is a major importer, processor, and exporter of forest- and land-use–related commodities.

A 2025 Forest Trends report found that China's agricultural and timber imports drove an annual loss of more than 400,000 hectares (ha) of tropical forest - four million ha in total - in the period between 2013 and 2022. This comes at the expense of the climate, as well as the natural world: the same report found that this amounted to as much as 5% of carbon emissions from tropical deforestation during this period.

• China's imports are associated with massive tropical deforestation, particularly in Brazil and Indonesia.

• Imports of palm oil, beef (including buffalo meat), soybeans and plantation timber are the biggest contributors to China's imported deforestation.

• Cattle production is the largest single driver of global deforestation, and 42% of exports from Brazil, the world's top beef exporter, go to China.

• China is the world's largest importer and consumer of soybeans, which contribute 18% of global deforestation.

• China is also among the top global consumers of palm oil, importing large volumes from Malaysia and Indonesia.

• Rubber, maize, cocoa, cassava and coffee are among other commodities responsible for China's imported deforestation.

• Almost 70% of China’s tropical deforestation footprint comes from forests illegally converted for commercial agriculture and timber plantations.

But I guess OP will continue forwarding pro-China propaganda headlines from the tankie comms under - in my opinion - a weird pretext. Don't get me wrong, this is not to say that someone - including me, of course - can post some shitty source once in a while, but just forwarding from ml all the time ends up almost automatically in a series of nothing burgers.

[Edit typo.]

66 billion planted trees
Yeah but it's not perfect lmao