The “Thousand Village Demonstration and Wancun Renovation” project in Zhejiang(China’s Zhejiang’s Green Rural Revival Programme) Province won the UN Earth Warrior Award in 2018! The "Guardian of the Earth" was established in 2004 and is selected annually. It is the highest environmental honor of the United Nations and is designed to recognize individuals or organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the protection or restoration of the environment.

Fang Min, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Environmental Protection Department, said: "This is not only the highest affirmation of the project, but also a reference for promoting the green development of rural areas in developing countries, and providing Zhejiang experience for ‘collecting global ecological civilization construction.'”

The winners are not only the politicians and celebrities of various countries, but also individuals and organizations from various fields such as politics, science, and business. There are French President Mark Long and Indian Prime Minister Modi. Last year, three of the five awards of the "Guardian of the Earth" were dropped in China. The winners were the builders of the Saihanba Forest Farm in China, the Mobike Bicycle and the Chairman of Elion Resources Group.

This year, Zhejiang Province won the “Incentive and Action Award” in the “Guardian of the Earth”.

Awards ceremony evaluation↓↓↓

Zhejiang “10 million projects” have gone through four stages:

2003-2007 "Demonstration Leading". More than 10,000 villages have taken the lead in promoting rural road hardening, garbage collection, sanitation and toilet reform, river ditch dredging, and village greening;

2008-2012 "Overall advancement". The main focus is on the prevention of non-point source pollution such as domestic sewage, livestock and poultry manure, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the renovation of rural houses;

2013-2015 “Deepening the promotion”. Initiate the rural sewage treatment, the pilot treatment of rural domestic waste, the protection and utilization of historical and cultural villages, and the creation of beautiful villages;

“Transformation and upgrading phase” since 2016. We will strive to create an upgraded version of the beautiful countryside. The beautiful rural construction will change from beauty to beauty, temporary beauty, enduring beauty, external beauty to inner beauty, environmental beauty to development beauty, and form beauty to institutional beauty.

In the past 15 years, the “Millions of Projects” have created thousands of beautiful villages and achieved remarkable results. By the end of 2017, there were 27,000 villages in Zhejiang to complete the village renovation, and 90% of the village's domestic sewage was effectively treated, and domestic garbage was concentrated and effectively treated 100%. The “Millions of Projects” also focused on combining environmental remediation with increased farmers’ income. In 2003, the per capita net income of farmers in Zhejiang Province was only 5,431 yuan. In 2017, the per capita disposable income of rural residents in Zhejiang was 24,956 yuan, ranking first in all provinces (districts).

Fang Min, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Environmental Protection Department, said: “The 'Million Projects' not only protected the 'Green Water Green Mountain', but also brought the 'Jinshan Yinshan', vividly interpreting the five major innovation, coordination, green, open and shared in China. The concept of development is also in line with the sustainable development advocated by the United Nations." In this regard, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP Solheim agreed, he praised: "What I saw in Pujiang and Anji, Zhejiang, is what China looks like in the future, even the future world!"

(Source: Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment)