Massive tree-planting campaigns on the mainland are doing more harm than good to the nation's already fragile ecosystem, says a leading environmental NGO.
In its 2006 Environment Green Book released on Monday, Friends of Nature said artificial woodlands, pushed by political and economic interests, were squeezing out natural forests at an unprecedented rate.
This was lowering the quality of the nation's forests and triggering severe environmental disasters.
'The cake of green space has grown in size, but it grows only in terms of superficial prosperity and only deepens the ecological crisis,' the report said.
More than 550 million people, or about half the population, helped plant more than 2 billion trees last year, the State Forestry Administration says.
In the past 25 years, 50 billion trees have been planted.
The mainland boasts the most extensive artificial woodlands in the world, covering 53 million hectares and accounting for about half the nation's entire forested area.