What is the significance of returning farmland to forests?

Returning farmland to forest is to stop the reclamation of sloping farmland that is easy to cause soil erosion in a planned and step-by-step manner from the perspective of protecting and improving the ecological environment, and to plant trees and grass according to local conditions and restore forest and grass vegetation according to the principles of suitable trees and irrigation, suitable grass and the combination of trees and irrigation. Returning farmland to forests refers to sloping farmland and desertified farmland with serious soil erosion and low and unstable yield. The project of returning farmland to forest includes two aspects: one is returning farmland to forest on sloping farmland, and the other is afforestation in barren hills and wasteland suitable for forest.

Returning farmland to forests is one of the important policies for China to implement the strategy of developing the western region. Its basic policies and measures are "returning farmland to forests, closing hillsides for greening, substituting work for relief, and individual contracting".