A view of a bamboo forest in Anji county, Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]

Huzhou's Anji county was recently included in a national pilot program for carbon sink, along with 17 cites (counties) and 21 State-owned farms across the country. 

The program was initiated by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Known as “the hometown of bamboo” in China, Anji has 1.01 million mu (67,333 hectares) of bamboo forests, including 870,000 mu of moso bamboo.

Anji had in 2010 started researching the carbon sink function of bamboo forests by teaming up with Zhejiang A&F University.

Based on the findings of preliminary explorations, the county set up a trading platform that allows enterprises and farmers to redeem rewards for planting bamboo in late 2021. The platform was the first of its kind set up by a county in the nation.

Involving the use of 58,000 hectares of bamboo forest as a carbon sink, the program in Anji can help landowners earn an additional 14.6 million yuan ($2.08 million) a year in income, official statistics show.

Bamboo is considered as an effective carbon sink and important nature-based approach to mitigating global warming. One study estimates that a one-hectare bamboo plantation could store 306 metric tons of carbon over a 60-year period compared with 178 tons for Chinese fir trees.