Andrei Povaliaev and his family plant trees in Changping district, Beijing on April, 14, 2024. (COURTESY PHOTO)

By BI Weizi and LONG Yun

The 2024 Beijing International Friendship Forest Tree Planting Event, held in Changping district in Beijing recently, attracted nearly 200 people, including foreign envoys to China, foreign experts and students from 47 countries.

Michael Crook, chairman of the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, was born and brought up in Beijing. He said China has played a leading role in reforestation and improving the ecological environment in recent decades, when human development has put enormous pressure on the Earth. He told Science and Technology Daily that when he was a child, Beijing's West Mountain was bare, but now it is covered with green plants.

"The Earth is not only something we inherit from our parents, but also something we borrow from our descendants," Zambia's Ambassador to China, Iven Zyuulu, told Science and Technology Daily, adding that giving back is more important than taking in order to leave a sustainable world for future generations.

He also praised China's basic national policy of conserving resources and protecting the environment to ensure sustainable development. China is taking concrete actions and implementing these policies, such as the transition to clean energy by promoting new energy vehicles (NEVs), which the world should learn from, he said.

He also lauded the "Beautiful China" initiative, which aims to create a sustainable and environmentally friendly nation, focusing on reducing pollutants, achieving carbon neutrality, promoting green development and preserving the ecosystem.

"People depend on nature for their livelihood. We should contribute to sustainable development, and the Beautiful China initiative is the way to go," he said.

Andrei Povaliaev, minister counselor of the Russian Embassy in China, was planting trees for the first time and his excitement was palpable.

"Planting trees with my family today has fulfilled my life's dream, as there is a saying in Russia that a man should own a house, have a child and plant a tree in his lifetime," Povaliaev said. His son, he added, was born in Beijing in 2007.

First and foremost, planting trees helps protect the environment and promotes sustainable development of the world, he said. Besides, the sapling he planted symbolizes the friendship between China and Russia, which will grow bigger and stronger with sunshine and water in the future.