A camping site in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/wzrb.com.cn]
The China Green City Research Institute of Beijing Forestry University recently published the 2023 Green City Construction Evaluation Report, which evaluated the green development of prefecture-level cities and counties in China. Fujian and Zhejiang had the most cities on the list, and Wenzhou ranked 8th in the country.
The report used six dimensions and 52 indicators to measure the development of green cities, such as forest resources, forest ecosystem, forestry industry, regional development, livability, and green governance. Cities with a forest coverage rate of more than 50 percent qualified for the report.
Wenzhou is a national forest city and a national forest tourism demonstration city. It has a forest area of 11.02 million mu (734,666 hectares) and a forest coverage rate of 62.01 percent. It has 15 state-owned forest farms, a forest greenway of 1,152 kilometers, and 570 ancient forest roads with a total length of 3,017 k.
Wenzhou has been working to develop a forest health industry and a forest tourism industry by taking advantage of its environmental strengths. It has more than 20 leading provincial-level forestry enterprises, with a forest-based economic output value of nearly 13 billion yuan ($1.81 billion). More than 63 million people visited the city for forest tourism, achieving an output value of more than 25 billion yuan.
