China's Reforestation Efforts Successful, NASA Images Confirm

China has managed to reverse centuries-worth of deforestation, according to recently released NASA images, providing some inspiration and hope for other countries to do the same.

The country has been on a steady trend towards industrialization, which is often correlated with environmental degradation. Deforestation, pollution and natural resources depletion have resulted from China's rapid economic boom in the past four decades.

Many did not expect the environmental improvements that China was able to achieve but this was scientifically verified. Based on the images captured by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), it was revealed that 1.6 percent of the total land surface of China became heavily forested in a span of only ten years from 2000 to 2010.

The reforestation rate is higher compared to the 0.38 percent deforestation rate for the same period. Around 160,000 square kilometers or 61,000 square miles of land area was covered.

Analyses of the NASA MODIS images were carried out and published by Dr. Andres Viña and colleagues from the University of Michigan. They confirmed that China's reforestation program is working effectively in line with the country's climate change mitigation agenda.

Tthe scientists were reportedly impressed by the positive results of the China's reforestation efforts. The progress that China made in environmental protection and preservation was significant, according to them.

"Our results are very positive for China," Viña said in a EurekAlert report. "If you look at China in isolation, its program is working effectively and contributing to carbon sequestration in accordance to its agenda for climate change mitigation. But on the other hand, China is not in a vacuum."

He pointed out that China's reforestation success could be detrimental to other countries because the huge country is not importing timber products from other countries. This will create a demand economic pressure on countries that export timber.

The Christian Science Monitor website published a similar story, emphasizing that the analysis of the satellite data should not be limited to only one nation. In a globalized community of nations, the bigger picture must always be taken into consideration.

These analyses were published recently in Science Advances.