China’s Shan-Shui Initiative is hugely ambitious, comprising 75 large-scale initiatives to restore ecosystems from mountains to coastal estuaries right across the world’s most populous nation.

Launched in 2016, the initiative results from a systematic approach to restoration. Projects dovetail with national land use plans, work at the landscape or watershed scale, include agricultural and urban areas as well as natural ecosystems, and seek to boost multiple local industries. All include goals for biodiversity.

Examples include the Oujiang River Headwaters Project in Zhejiang province, which integrates scientific knowledge with traditional farming methods, like slope terracing and combining crops with fish- and duck-rearing to make land use more sustainable.