Guiyang's Changpoling Forest Park is an example of the city's achievements in forest resource protection. [Photo/ddcpc website]

Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, has made progress protecting its forest resources as China's first national forest city. The city currently has 6.48 million mu (432,000 hectares) of forest, covering 55 percent of the city's area.

With the efforts in biodiversity protection, Guiyang has 2,606 varieties of vascular plant species, 2,264 varieties of spermatophytes, and 439 varieties of vertebrates.

In recent years, Guiyang has afforested 1.73 million mu of forests through returning farmland to forests, stony desertification prevention, afforestation on barren hills, agricultural planting structure adjustment, and management of young afforested land.

Relying on its forest resources, Guiyang has built a batch of forest and wetland parks and constructed 11 forest healthcare centers, and its Aha Lake National Wetland Park and Changpoling Forest Park are known as China's oxygen bars.

From 2016 to 2020, Guiyang developed forestry industries such as bamboo, oil tea, Sichuan pepper, and national reserve forest, with a total output value of 46.2 billion yuan.

Guiyang has provided 438.06 million yuan in people-benefit forest subsidies for 12,645 impoverished people, and by 2021, its forestry derived economy had involved 1.1 million mu of forest area, benefiting 12,000 rural residents.