Shanghai’s plan for urban forestation is authorized and the forest construction for the next five years has started its implementation. According to the Municipal Conference on Forestation on 10th, November 2003, Shanghai will develop its forestation on the basis of ensuring enough land for grain production and a total grain production of 1 billion kilograms. On the principle of combining agriculture and forestation, and conducting agriculture or forestation according to the actual conditions, the city plans to achieve its forest coverage of about 22 percent by 2007.

In the next five years, while further strengthening government guidance of forest construction, Shanghai will focus on the establishment of market-oriented investment and financing system and adopt different funding methods suited to the different functions of forestry.

Shanghai’s Plan for Urban Forest was also made public in yesterday’s Conference, according to which, by the year 2020, the forest coverage of the city will have reached over 35 percent. The Plan emphasizes the integration of urban forest with the layout of the public greening lands in downtown Shanghai, with city’s traffic and scenic corridors, with the layout of urban development, and with the adjustment of the agricultural structure. According to the Plan, the development of Shanghai’s urban forest will have large-scale forest stretches as its core and forest corridors as its veins, forming a spatial layout of urban forest characterized by “two rings, sixteen corridors, three belts and nineteen stretches of forest”.