The central government of China attaches great importance to ecological construction in southwest China's Tibet and Tibetan-inhabited areas in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan Province. The principle of putting ecological protection first continues to see increased investment and has achieved remarkable results.

Tibet has invested 9.5 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion US dollars) in  protecting and establishing ecological security in Tibet. Supervision and management on environmental protection has been strengthened, and the environmental protection "one vote veto" system has been strictly implemented. As a result, there has been no approval and no introduction of enterprises or projects with high pollution, high energy consumption or high water consumption. 

Lhasa City has become a model for environmental protection in China. Shannan and Nyingchi were included in the first group of demonstration areas for the advancement of ecological civilization in China. The region also has top-quality water, air and soil.

China's southwestern province of Sichuan completed 2.658 million mu (0.177 million hectares) of forest construction, with forest area increasing to 259 million mu (17.3 million hectares) and desertification control land covering 377,700 mu (25,180 hectares).  Pastoral grassland protection system have comprehensively implemented, which returns 45.17 million mu (3 million hectares) of grazing land to fenced grassland and re-grown 14.7 million mu (0.98 million hectares) of deteriorated grassland.

Since 2012, 1.85 billion yuan (0.28 billion US dollars) has been invested in Tibetan-habited areas in southwest China's Yunnan. 1.7673 million mu (0.1178 million hectares) of forest construction for public benefit have been completed,  and 379,000 mu (25,267 hectares) of farmland has been returned to forest, while 3.05 million mu (0.2 million hectares) of farmland back to natural grassland, with forest coverage rate increasing from 66.8% to 74.9%.

China's northwest province of Gansu has implemented 130 projects including building sanitation facilities  in farming villages  and providing heating to townships, and constructed 150,000 mu (10,000 hectares) of artificial grassland and 5,750 barns for feeding.  Urban and rural environmental health improvement and garbage clean-up activities s have also been carried out, creating a tourist demonstration area without garbage.

The Sanjiangyuan area in northwest China's Qinghai Province is located in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and sits at an altitude of 3,335 to 6,561 meters. This area has many glaciers, snow-capped mountains and plateau species. It is an important ecological protection zone affecting climate in China, Asia and even throughout the world. In order to put a stop to global warming and the shrinking of glaciers and snow mountains, the Chinese government has invested 1.72 billion yuan (0.26 billion US dollars) in the Sanjiangyuan ecological protection project. Tracking data indicates that over the past three years the various ecosystems have maintained a steady recovery and the green mountains and blue waters are returning to Sanjiangyuan day by day.