Photo taken on March 31 shows staff plant trees on the Yarlung Zangbo River northshore floodplain in Namlin County in Shigatse City.

Starting in 2014, the Tibet Autonomous Region commenced a greenification project for the “Two Rivers & Four Rivers” (the Yarlung Zangbo River, the Lhasa and Nujiang Rivers, the Nianchu River, the Yarlung River and the Shiquan River) which account for the living areas of 80% of Tibet’s total population, it is being implemented in order to conserve water resources as well as for use as windbreak and sand fixation.

At the project’s starting point in Namlin county of Shigatse City, the Yarlung Zangbo River Northshore Ecology Demonstration area was constructed, making for a testing point to start the large scale forestation effort. After two years of construction, initial results are becoming visible with 18,000 acres planted including more than 1.2 million trees with tree survival rates achieving between 90 and 95%. The State and the Shandong Tibet Aid Fund have invested more than 100 million RMB and this year there are plans to forest 7,000 more acres.