Editor's note: China has released the recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan, which outline priorities for national economic and social development. CGTN invites industry insiders and experts to interpret the policy implications in the field of ecological civilization and ecosystem conservation – a pillar of China's high-quality development. Dong Shikui, dean and full professor at the School of Grasslands, Beijing Forestry University, China, and an adjunct professor at Cornell University, U.S., explains how China will advance grassland ecological protection and restoration in the next five years under the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), and the pathways toward building a resilient, biodiversity-rich ecosystem.

With the forthcoming 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) as a guiding framework, China's ecological-civilization efforts stand to enter a new stage of systematic enhancement and high-quality development. This transition stems not only from the inherent requirements for China's high-quality development, but also reflects its commitment as a key participant and contributor to global ecological civilization. It is worthwhile to interpret the wisdom and foresight within this blueprint from the unique perspective of grassland ecological construction.

First and foremost, the recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan call for adhering to the principle of "holistic conservation and systematic restoration of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands and deserts." For grasslands, this signifies breaking free from the limited view of "grass-only" management and planning for their future within a broader territorial spatial framework.

Scientifically demarcating and strictly enforcing forest and grassland conservation zones is particularly crucial. During the 2026-2030 period, China aims to achieve a forest and grassland coverage rate (overall forest–grassland land-cover ratio) of 56.09 to 56.4 percent and increase the comprehensive vegetation coverage of grasslands (vegetation coverage level of grasslands) to over 50.52 to 51 percent. This demands not only the protection of existing natural grasslands but also the scientific implementation of large-scale land greening initiatives. For instance, long-term research on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau has shown that staged, multi-species vegetation restoration efforts on severely degraded grassland areas can effectively increase vegetation coverage and achieve stable, long-term grassland expansion and productivity enhancement.

Secondly, facing challenges posed by global changes such as climate warming and land use change, traditional conservation methods are no longer efficient. China will identify scientific and technological innovation as the core driver, charting a new course forward during the 15th Five-Year Plan. On the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, a large community of researchers has established long-term controlled experiments focusing on warming, drought and different grassland utilization practices. This work has accumulated a solid theoretical foundation for understanding how to sustain grassland ecosystem productivity and biodiversity under global change, forming a vital safeguard for achieving sustainable grassland development. For example, the controlled warming experiments on the Plateau revealed that plant species respond to warming asynchronously. This insight underscores the need, amidst ongoing climate warming, to focus on the impacts of differential responses among alpine plant species on the ecosystem, such as potential mismatches between plant flowering and insect pollination.

Regarding grassland restoration and improvement, sustained efforts must extend beyond implementing protection and repair through measures like periodic local grazing bans (rotational grazing, grazing fallow) and maintaining a balance between forage and livestock. It is imperative to focus on "optimizing the configuration of forest and grassland vegetation." Guided by scientific ecological succession theory, the "introducing shrubs into grasslands and grasses into shrublands" model promotes the rational combination of shrubs and grasses to construct more stable, structurally diverse and multi-functional composite ecosystems. Our long-term studies in alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau showed that the scientific selection of different plants based on the restoration stage and ecological succession theory is critical in the process of ecological restoration. Initially, selecting grassland plant species with strong sexual reproduction capabilities can effectively improve soil conditions, creating a favorable environment for subsequent restoration stages and the establishment of other plant species.

Establishment of cultivated grasslands in warm and humid regions is a strategic choice for ensuring forage-livestock balance and alleviating pressure on natural grasslands in cold or dry regions. Central to this is the development of the grass seed industry, which acts as the "core chip" project.

The future entails establishing an independent and efficient grass seed breeding system to supply superior "Chinese core chips" for restoring degraded grasslands. China has begun establishing the National Facility Preservation Bank for Forestry and Grassland Germplasm Resources (Xiong'an). The plan is to collect and preserve 1.8 million important germplasm resources in the long term. Once completed, this facility, along with six regional sub-banks across the country, will undertake critical national tasks, including the collection and long-term strategic preservation of key germplasm resources, their identification and evaluation, functional gene exploration, distribution for utilization, and international exchange and cooperation. This system will strongly support innovation in the forest and grassland plant seed industry, serving the high-quality development of forestry and grassland sectors.

Grassland protection requires robust institutional safeguards. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, reforms in the grassland sector will be deepened. This includes improving the grassland ecological compensation and reward policy, advancing the planning and protection of basic grasslands, implementing the extension of grassland contracting rights and strictly cracking down on illegal activities that damage forests and grasslands. Simultaneously, it is essential to uphold the bottom lines of pest and fire prevention, strengthen talent development and deploy a series of major forestry and grassland projects for the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

In conclusion, grassland ecological civilization construction under the 15th Five-Year Plan paints a magnificent picture grounded in systematic governance, driven by technological innovation, aimed at public well-being, and set on a stage of global cooperation. It is the right time to work hand in hand with all countries to jointly safeguard our shared planetary home with the notion of "one grassland, one Earth."