Shandong Ecological Afforestation

closed

The development objective of the Shandong Ecological Afforestation Project for China will be to demonstrate effective afforestation models for environmentally degraded areas in support of Shandong's environmental afforestation programs. There are two components to the project. The first component of the project is environmental plantation establishment. This component will be implemented in 30 selected counties of Shandong province and will include two sub-components: (a) re-vegetation of degraded mountainous areas through planting of tree and shrub vegetation on highly degraded hillsides with a shallow soil cover; and (b) establishing protection forest plantations on saline coastal areas by planting trees and shrubs along roads, canals, and in areas designated for afforetation to protect agricultural land, improve productivity, and stabilize the newly created alluvial land near the mouth of the Yellow River. The second component of the project is technical support and project management. This component will support: (a) upgrading nurseries to propagate wider number of shrub and tree species including improving seedling quality, nursery equipment, onsite irrigation system (sub-lateral or smaller ditches), as well as providing training to small nurseries in nursery management and seedling requirements; (b) applied research, extension, and dissemination programs to generate and disseminate a wider range of species and planting techniques; and (c) strengthening the capacity of project implementing agencies at the provincial and local levels in project management, and monitoring and evaluation through the provision of technical assistance, training, and study tours. The latter will monitor project performance, achievement of project objective, and assess the project's environmental and socio-economic impact.