Horqin Desert Afforestation Activities (Hitachi Construction Machinery (China))

On September 7 to 10, 2016, a group of 20 volunteers, comprising employees from Hitachi Construction Machinery (China) Co., Ltd. (HCMC) and participants from 14 business partners conducted afforestation activities in the Horqin Desert, which is located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China.

The volunteer Horqin Desert afforestation project was started in 2004 by Hitachi Construction Machinery (Shanghai). Over a 10-year period up to 2014, the program has planted trees and greenery in a 100,000 square meter plot of desert, which has been dubbed the Hitachi Construction Machinery Forest.

HCMC will participate in the construction of a public forest in the severely desertified Horqin Desert. For this activity, we have partnered with the NPO Green Network and will promote the revegetation of a further 100,000 square meters of land over 10 years from 2017.

Planting trees in the desert this time allowed the volunteers to once again feel our responsibility and the importance of improving the desert’s environment. We will further develop these activities and take action so as to turn the desert into an oasis through more people participating as volunteers.

In addition to the activities of HCMC, Hitachi Construction Machinery (Shanghai) together with its agents in China has been carrying out a new 10-year plan for tree planting that has aimed at the afforestation of 130,000 square meters of land in another part of the Horqin Desert since 2015.

※HCM received the Judges’ Honorable Mention Award at the 6th Contest for Corporate Activities on Biodiversity for its desert afforestation balancing forest restoration and community revitalization through water bucket relay for the future. (December 2017)