How does China mark Environment Days?
植树节
- Local date
- March 12, 2027
China put its tree-planting day in the body of a statute. Article 10 of the Forest Law reads: planting trees and protecting forests is a duty of every citizen; governments at every level shall organise the nationwide compulsory tree-planting activity; 12 March each year is Arbor Day. This version of the Forest Law was revised by the fifteenth session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on 28 December 2019 and took effect on 1 July 2020. The wording makes planting an obligation rather than a holiday: under the Measures on Holidays for National Annual Festivals and Memorial Days as revised in November 2024, the days on which all citizens are off work are New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Qingming, Labour Day, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn and National Day — seven, none of them environmental. One coincidence is worth noting: 12 March appears in Taiwan's Act on Commemorative Days and Holidays as the anniversary of the death of the founding father, so the two Arbor Days on either side of the strait share a date with that memorial.
全国生态日
- Local date
- August 15, 2027
National Ecology Day is the newest entry on this page. On 28 June 2023 the third session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress adopted a decision establishing 15 August as National Ecology Day, with the state to conduct education and publicity on ecological civilisation in various forms. It was created by a decision of the Standing Committee rather than by an article of a statute, a different rung from Arbor Day, and like Arbor Day it is not a day off. The choice of date was stated openly: the Ministry of Ecology and Environment explained that on 15 August 2005, during an inspection of Anji county in Huzhou, Zhejiang, Xi Jinping first put forward the formulation "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." The first National Ecology Day was marked on 15 August 2023 in Huzhou, hosted jointly by the National Development and Reform Commission with the Central Publicity Department, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Zhejiang provincial government.
What is this topic?
Environment days almost never come with a day off. Across these seven countries there is exactly one exception, and it exists by accident: 4 May in Japan, Midori no Hi, is a statutory public holiday under article 2 of the Act on National Holidays. It began as the Showa Emperor's birthday on 29 April; when the throne passed in 1989 the birthday moved to December and the empty 29 April was renamed Greenery Day so the day off would survive, then shifted again to 4 May in 2007. Everywhere else the environment day is written into a statute, a decree or an assembly resolution — and the same instrument says nobody stops working.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.