In recent years, the city has earnestly implemented Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Civilization and continuously deepened the reform of the “forest chief” system. Forest chiefs at all levels have actively fulfilled their responsibilities, while departments have worked in close coordination to address a series of bottlenecks and challenges in forest protection and development. These efforts have effectively advanced the high-quality growth of the forestry industry and fostered a positive interaction between ecological and economic benefits. In 2024, municipal-level forest chiefs conducted 63 patrols, with the city’s completion rate of forest-chief tasks ranking first in the province for the first time and earning top honors.

The city has advanced greening initiatives with higher quality and broader scope, laying a stronger foundation for a lush and beautiful environment. Scientific land greening has been carried out in full swing, with comprehensive progress made under the “Green and Beautiful Jianghuai” campaign. Major efforts have gone into building ecological corridors along the Yangtze River and the Jianghuai Canal, as well as strengthening the ecological barrier of the Dabie Mountains. High-quality implementation of central government pilot and demonstration projects on land greening, together with the Dabie Mountain ecological protection and restoration project in western Anhui, has produced solid results. In 2024 alone, the city completed 28,900 mu of afforestation, 220,200 mu of forest closure for regeneration, 130,300 mu of degraded forest restoration, and 171,400 mu of forest tending—all surpassing provincial targets. At the same time, 12 “Internet + Voluntary Tree-Planting” projects were launched, further fostering a strong atmosphere of public participation in tree planting.

The city has empowered development by advancing “green-driven” initiatives. Strictly implementing the requirements for deepening the reform of the collective forest tenure system, it has identified key entry points and taken targeted measures to push reforms forward. In Jinzhai County, supplementary registration surveys covering 336,700 mu of forest tenure in Changling and Shahe townships were completed, producing integrated “map–ownership–file” forest rights registration data. The county was successfully selected as a national pilot for improving the quality and efficiency of forest tenure registration. In Hoshan County’s Danjiamiao Township, a strong push was made to advance the collective forest tenure real estate registration pilot, resulting in the issuance of 3,633 forest-related real estate certificates—the highest batch issuance in the province. The city has also vigorously developed leading forestry industries such as timber and bamboo, woody oil crops, and under-forest economies. In 2024, the total forestry and grassland output value of the city reached 85.835 billion yuan.

The city has strengthened its ecological foundation by “protecting the green” and safeguarding ecological barriers. It took the lead in the province in developing an integrated “sky–space–ground” monitoring platform for forestland and nature reserves, using AI technology to analyze multi-temporal remote sensing images and promptly detect and address forestry-related violations. Comprehensive responsibility for forest pest control has been enforced. One epidemic area and four epidemic sites were successfully eliminated, resulting in six townships becoming free of outbreaks. Both the affected area and the number of dead pine trees have continued to decline for four consecutive years.