From the heart of Beijing to the edges of the global stage, you're at Roundtable.
I'm Niu Honglin.
For decades, environmental action has been framed around one simple idea, plant more trees.
But in many places, especially cities, space is limited and the challenge is no longer just planting, but maintaining what's already there.
That shift is giving rise to a new approach.
Instead of planting a tree, you can adopt one.
How to do that?
Stay with Roundtable.
For today's show, I'm joined by Yushan and Steve Hatherly.
Now pull up a chair and join the conversation.
Some trees have stood quietly for centuries, watching cities grow around them.
They've survived storms, droughts, and time itself.
Now, in an age of digital connection, they're finding new guardians, not through forests or fields, but through screens and networks.
Here in China, both ancient tea trees in southwest China's Yunnan province and trees in Beijing are part of a growing adoption trend where people can support conservation through a few steps and a few taps on their phone.
It's personal, digital, and surprisingly accessible.
And I have to say, the first time I noticed an ancient tree is in my hometown, Shanxi Province, the provincial capital, Taiyuan.
And the reason that I get to notice it is because it's very, very obvious in the middle of a road. a quite wide road but the tree is literally in the middle of the road you have to go around it because the tree is protected they want to make sure that when they're designing city planners when they're designing the routes when they design the really fast lanes for the automobiles.
The tree is just standing there minding its own business.
Because it is that important to protect a tree, even if traffic has to go around it.
Like nature's traffic police.
In a way, you have to slow down a bit.
But that reflects how much importance people attach to tree protection.
And now we are looking at a new approach protecting these trees, maintaining them and involving basically everyone who is interested, from the society, into the conservation action.
That's true, and what's going on recently here in Beijing is that you can literally adopt trees here in the city, like paying out of your own pocket for the caring of a tree and in the meantime, have your own name printed on a little tag hanging from that tree indicating that yep, I'm taking care of it.
So this is part of the 2026 tree adoption initiative launched by the Beijing Municipal Greening Committee Office just this April.
So this idea, this whole idea, is to give residents more flexibility and convenience to fulfilling their environmental responsibilities, while helping build a greener, almost garden-like city.
In the recent years in Beijing, there's already a lot of changes regarding the the greenery construction within the city.
We've seen better biodiversity, more birds stopping by each year, all thanks to that effort.
But now it's getting down to the personal level.
You can literally adopt trees.
Well, they've done it in the city before, but it was done on an individual level kind of, because parks organized their own activities, and they've been doing that for up to 20 years.
But this is the first time it's going to be citywide.
And it's across all 16 different districts.
That's a fun little fact if you didn't know how many districts were in Beijing.
All 16 districts, all 10 municipal parks.
There will be a total of 450 ancient parks and notable trees and 1550 high-quality landscape trees that have been selected for this adoption program.
So I thought it would be more than that, more trees in total, but it's around 2,000 trees or so.
And it's a really good place to start.
That's for sure.
450 ancient trees compared to the 1500 or so high quality landscape trees.
I'm not sure how differently they look or how big or how small they are.
Obviously, the ancient trees, I think, would be sizable for sure.
And it's a really interesting point that you mentioned in the parks, because in a lot of the very traditional nowadays travel sites, but also local parks such as the D-Town Park,
And Tiantan Park, which is the Temple of Heaven and Temple of Earth.
They're right on the northern and the southern side of the Forbidden City, in case you're wondering where they are in Beijing.
They are known to have a huge gather of ancient trees.
Because of its very usage back in the Qing Dynasty as a temple of honoring the heaven and the earth.
So that's very curious that the Deton Park, for example they have been organizing such well similar activities for nearly 20 years for people to you know.
Pick a tree and take care of it from your own personal efforts.
And beyond parks, there's also like local community and regional efforts put in that too.
I remember back when I was in primary school, the community that I used to live in, where nowadays is resided by my grandparents once hosted something very similar inviting all the kids inside the community to pick a tree inside that little region and put your name tag, like how they're doing nowadays, on the tree.
But I remember my name was washed off after that year.
You didn't continue to pay.
Yeah, it was like totally free.
It was like a memorial kind of effort on a particular day after a particular activity.
But the gesture was there ever since then.
It's something that people want to encourage people, especially younger generation, to realize that we're contributing to the greenery of the city.
But I think this one is much more serious.
And once I get to do a little research, I am totally intrigued.
I want to know how to do this.
At the very beginning, you like the idea of adopting a tree.
You put in a little bit of money to make a donation.
A little or a lot, depending on the tree.
Depending on the tree and also how committed you are.
But you are doing something nice, a kind of charity that you get to do.
And that makes you feel this is nice.
But the more you know about it, the more you want to know, do I get to be thanked in any way?
Can I see my tree regularly?
How hard is the submitting process?
And all that is actually very well explained.
Yeah, so what you do is you go to the Capital Voluntary Tree Planting WeChat mini program.
Love that name, by the way.
So when you open up that mini program, you can browse through the available trees.
It's like tree shopping online.
You find the one that you like, you pay the amount.
And then you sign an agreement too.
And all of this is done online, by the way.
You don't have to visit any local government office or anything like that.
The money that you paid goes entirely toward the daily care and the maintenance of the tree that you've selected.
And then, if you're the person who has adopted that tree, you can monitor how your contributions are used or how that money is spent.
Your adoption period is for one year.
And then after the one year, you are given the option to renew.
So it can be my tree forever or for the first year and I get to pick another tree that I like.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, why not, right?
And you don't even need to pay a lot for it.
I think that's the best part, because people are now paying an annual fee as low as 50 yuan that's roughly 7 US dollars for the basic adoption of a tree here in Beijing.
Or as high as 2,000 yuan, that's roughly 293 U.S. dollars per tree per year for the ancient trees.
That's why I said a little or a lot of money.
A few centuries old.
Think about that.
A 300-year-old tree with a tag of your name on it saying that I'm founded by this person.
So that's all confirmed by the voluntary tree planting division at the Beijing Municipal Greening Committee.
But this is just the official price tag because individual parks or the greenery local or district level, the greenery bureaus, they may adjust these prices based on the tree's special conditions.
For example, the popularity of this tree maybe there are more than one people wanting to sign up for it the location of it, the cultural significance of it.
So it all varies depending on where it is and just how popular they are.
And once your adoption is confirmed, you'll receive a legally binding electronic adoption agreement as proof.
Yeah, that's the contract.
You can apply online for an official certificate issued by the Beijing Municipal Greening Committee if your contribution is at least 60 yuan.
Doing the research makes me want to adopt a tree with the name of Roundtable.
I find it really cool if it's an ancient tree.
We can all chip in after the show if we want to.
It's not a bad idea.
Or we could go for a cheaper option in D-Time Park.
The regular trees there are 50 yuan per tree per year.
You mentioned that the ancient trees, Yushan, are way, way, way more expensive than that.
In Beijing Garden Expo Park, there's another option there, the mountain peach trees.
Those are 298 yuan each. per year.
That's about $43.
And then you can get exclusive group nameplates that are 398 yuan or almost $60 per tree per year.
So if we go with the roundtable idea, we could have our entire team's names put on that nameplate.
Yes, that'll be a good idea.
But If you are totally interested and want to do this, make sure that when you are putting names under the tree, do not be when you're naming the trees.
You cannot name them after historical figures.
Or celebrities.
Celebrities.
Which was done before, by the way.
Don't make naughty jokes.
Because this is, in the end, a noble deed.
And don't make it sound wrong or being borrowed for other purposes, and especially because kids would go around these parks.
They would see these trees, see the names under it.
So make sure for educational purposes, even do not make jokes, inappropriate jokes, when you're naming these trees.
But that being said, I'm actually a little bit curious.
Even in the beginning we mentioned that we have enough trees, but do we have really have enough trees?
Can we have enough trees per se?
It's a very complicated question depending on which part of this country we're talking about.
For example in Beijing.
I think many people still want to plant trees, but the space here in Beijing is very limited already.
I've never heard...
That sentence before.
Exactly.
Beijing is a huge city.
But I know what you mean.
In terms of number of trees.
Because there's already so many trees planted in the city already.
And authorities, they are trying to expand the definition of participation.
So, instead of encouraging more people to plant trees in the already land scarves or land limited city of Beijing, people are now encouraged to adopt already planted trees.
So they have already planted many trees in limited spaces.
This year, as a matter of fact, also marks the 45th anniversary of China's nationwide voluntary tree planting campaign.
So that has started since 1981, where Beijing alone has seen over 120 trees, million participations, which with more than 230 million trees already planted.
That's the scale.
Yeah, that's the scale.
I mean, it's been going on for so long and People get really into it, right.
People love their trees here in this city.
And there's a good reason for that.
It's because the trees add so much to the aesthetic of the city.
It's one of the things that I noticed first when I moved to Beijing and it's the thing that I hear about first when I have friends who visit Beijing as well is I can't believe how green it is.
And that's why they're going with this type of campaign.
They still want people to be involved.
They still want that sense of community.
But since there is a limited amount of space now due to the success and popularity of previous campaigns, that's why they're going with this.
Yeah.
And also we mentioned the name of that mini app earlier and it's under the campaign of Voluntary Tree Planting Program.
It's still a tree planting program and it covers into eight different categories and 47 different participation options.
So meaning that adoption isn't the only approach, but it is the key approach and it's showing effect, that it's working pretty well in supplying the city governance and helping with the financial aid, with all that.
It's a tangible and recognized contribution to you know, just adopt or sponsor trees locally, or bushes or long.
It's not only for the tree doesn't have to be.
You can sponsor a shrub if you so choose.
That is a good idea.
Is a shrub equaling with a bush?
Yeah, something like that.
And in different places, you have different choices.
For instance, in Yunnan Province, Yunnan Province is famous for its tea tree.
And apparently, starting with 1,000 trees by the end of March 2024, now we already have...
3,000 by the end of 2024 and reaching 10,000 by the year 2026.
That is the tree adopted or enrolled in the tree adoption plan in Yunnan Province and they're talking about protecting and adopting ancient tea trees, because I don't know I think we've mentioned this on Roundtable with tea-related topics, that is, tea leaves are, from this one, relatively large, but still just one type of tree.
Yes, under the tree, there are sub types, but mainly it's just one type of plant.
And that ancient tea tree is still able to produce tea leaves that you can enjoy, but it's thousands of years old and it is something that's worth protecting.
And you can adopt a tea tree and perhaps you can even enjoy the tea from the tea tree of yours.
I was just about to ask if you get to keep the tea that grows on your tree.
Maybe not all of it, but at least you can enjoy part of it.
They're still kind of harvesting and making sales out of it.
I'm sure, because I think where you're mentioning is the Shuangjiang County in the city of Lintang in Yunnan province.
And, that place, that county really boasts the abundance of local tea production.
And it's one of their local pillar industry too.
It boasts over 36900 mu, or over 6000 acres of ancient tea trees that are over a hundred years old on average.
So meaning that Yeah, it's probably where local people are earning money from too.
So better not take all of the revenues out of it if you're adopting it.
And the tree adopting is happening all over China, but it's not only in China, right happening outside of the country as well.
Yeah, there are some different.
I mean, you could just do a quick internet search on any particular city around the world and I feel like you would find.
A program that is dedicated to taking care of trees or greenery within a city.
I found a couple that stood out to me.
The city of Los Angeles in the United States, in California, they have a program called City Plants and it's a nonprofit program.
And it's focused on one thing and one thing only, and that's getting more trees planted across the city, especially in areas of the city that don't have many.
And their mission is to make L.A. greener and healthier.
If you've been to Los Angeles before, you'll know that the downtown area feels very much like LA, a concrete jungle a little bit.
So they want to make it a greener and they want to have equal access for different neighborhoods as well.
So it's kind of cool how the program works.
All you have to do is go to their homepage And then they will give you trees for free.
They will give you yard trees or yard plants.
They'll deliver them to your house.
And then you plant them and you take care of them.
But they'll also give you street trees.
So the street trees would be on a sidewalk.
You've got the space between the street and then the front lawn.
That's where trees are planted.
We see that here in Beijing too.
They'll give you those trees too, for the front of your house, but they'll come and plant it, but you're still the one who is responsible for that.
And again, you know, this is a really cool program.
It's not exactly the same program that we have here in Beijing, but still it's all about making the city greener and it's about having people from the community involved too.
And I love the fact that...
That in LA, where you have diverse neighborhoods and not all neighborhoods have the same access or the same coverage from trees, they want to equal out that kind of system.
So that's one.
There's another one in Melbourne Australia, where they have an active digital map of every single tree in the city.
And the citizens...
If they, throughout their day going around the city, see a problem with one of the trees, they can report that directly into the app.
And it's about the city and the residents helping to take care of the trees in a community basin.
Yeah, that's even cooler.
It's cool, right?
For tree adoption.
We understand that this is an approach that China is taking because well, not an entirety of China, but different places cities are taking because they face the reality of not having enough space for people who want to grow, take care of trees or to plant more trees.
And it's a way to have them engage in the protecting of nature and in different occasions on, for example, the Earth Day, which falls on April the 22nd.
People wanted to do a bit more to help the Earth getting a bit better, help the planet.
And we have a lot of these days related to getting into a better relationship between human and nature, and there are definitely different ways to do so.
But, to be more specific, for these tree adopting one, do we want to upscale it to a international scale, because In a lot of places they still have spaces to plant trees and maybe planting
We're looking at a planting versus maintaining kind of situation.
If you look at the examples from Los Angeles and Melbourne, they have programs in place that are needed by their city or are appropriate for their city.
Here in Beijing, the program is put in place, and the reason it's put in place is what we talked about.
Starting back in the early 1980s, you had these tree volunteer planting programs.
And now I mean it's hard to find an empty space without a tree.
I've tried explaining this to people before when I said, oh, Beijing is really green.
I can't emphasize it enough.
It doesn't matter where you go.
There are trees and shrubs and plants and bushes and grass.
And it's just like we're living in the middle of a forest, which is amazing.
But L.A. is not like that.
And L.A. is a really hot city.
And L.A. deals with droughts and things like this.
And they want to save money on electricity.
So they're giving these trees to people up to seven, by the way.
You can get seven free trees from that program for your yard.
And it's about keeping your house cool.
And it's about saving electricity and things like that.
The answer to your question is, whatever the city needs, that's how they design the program for it.
I think it's a good answer and definitely we need a case-by-case approach to different problems, but at the same time,
For this one, yes, it's convenient.
It's seamless.
You do it on your mini app, which is great because you do not have to put in too much trouble, go through too much trouble and put in too much effort, which means you're not getting the tangible feeling unless you go visit the tree that you adopt, right.
You are not...
Hugging the tree, learning about the tree, watering the tree.
Well, knowing all these things about tree maintenance.
Yes and no, because they'll put cameras on the trees for you.
Right, there's monitors.
There's live monitors.
You can see it whenever you want.
It's all virtual.
It's not tangible.
It's not physical.
It's a live thing.
It's a live stream from your dream.
It is.
That is precisely my question.
Do you think it's enough or do you think we're diminishing the contact we get to forge with nature?
I think the reason why people found this whole campaign fascinating, at least in the case here in Beijing, is that it's much easier to do because not everyone has the time, space or resources to actually plant a tree and, you know, just take care of it 24-7, all the time.
And many, like a few of our colleagues whom I heard already adopted trees.
They can support this adoption from afar digitally, and that's done very conveniently.
That's made to for the convenience of urban dwellers in such a fast and efficient way.
So adopting the tree, it's totally simpler than planting one.
And for the fulfillment and the accomplishment of planting a tree, there are also options for that.
I think we've mentioned more than once that a lot of the major tech companies they're organizing campaigns like that in remote areas around mega cities and also in northern China too.
So if that's what you're looking for, then sure.
But we're talking about urban dwellers who want the same feeling but do not need to attend everything personally.
You know what this reminds me?
Renting a farmland.
Yes.
Like the mini farmlands.
You can get your fresh produce sent to you And it's all out of the same purpose.
Like, we still get the fulfillment afterwards.
There are parks that have activities that you can take part in.
I don't know if it's D-Time Park or not the park that we mentioned before, but they'll have like a parks will have like a spring watering activity, a winter watering activity and maybe something for the kids in the summertime.
So I guess you're kind of right and maybe a little tiny bit wrong, in the sense that it's not completely online, where you never have an opportunity to go and visit the tree that you're sponsoring.
But, yeah, it's not like it's offering a different alternative.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And you're right.
You know, if you're especially for the ancient trees.
If you're spending hundreds of dollars a year for the maintenance of that tree, of course you're going to want to go and hang out with it sometimes.
Yes, hang out with the tree.
And there are different programs allowing people to get that connection with nature.
For instance...
When it comes to adopting trees.
Not only can you as an individual adopt a tree.
Now, different corporations, different companies can be an ecological partner of a little pocket garden.
Remember the pocket garden pocket parks we talked about in mega cities here in China.
Because the space is limited, different city planners find different ways to put in a tiny little so-called pocket park in the city center.
A corner of a block and tiny little area within a residential area can be a pocket park.
And as a company you can.
It's sort of like adopting the pocket park you can design, you can put in your money as charity and you can bring in different types of plants and flowers and grass to decorate the park and to make the park even better and, of course, your name would be attached to it.
It's happening in shanghai and for those city who wanted to do more than adopting a tree online,
You can even take part in different types of activities, get your hands dirty or even become part of a um citizen science program.
That is the kind of program that you can learn to monitor birds butterflies, air quality, water quality and more, and it is widely used in international conservation and environmental governance.
Participation usually means We, as a common citizen, can use different mobile apps, observation logs, photos and fixed site monitoring to provide the data which researchers or NGOs or governments can use later.
You upload the things that you observe and the data you collect. to online platforms.
It's kind of like the Melbourne thing.
Yes, yes.
But this one is done not only for trees, but for all different kinds of nature-related designs and data.
Yes, if you want it to be convenient, if you want to make your contribution without jump through a lot of hoops yes, do the adopting tree thing.
But if you're genuinely or even more committed to get in touch with nature, there are a lot of different things you can do.
I thought of my tree name if I adopt one.
Well, what would it be?
Treeve.
Ah, it is.
It's like Steve, but it's a tree.
Okay, now I get it.
Not all jokes are funny.
We have tree, we have round table, and we have a tree that our team member has already adopted.
Oh, really?
We can have a plant.
We can have a park.
Take the whole park over.
We can.
Exactly.
Yes.
So if you want to adopt a tree, what would you name your tree and which location would you choose?
You can leave that comments with us and maybe in the future we can have an activity tree appreciating and roundtable listening kind of activity.
Let us know if you like the idea.
We'll focus group that activity.
