A three-year Sino-Japanese afforestation project has been launched in Jianchuan County in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The project, jointly launched by the China National Greening Committee and Japan-China Friendship Association, is aimed to improve the ecological environment and afforestation campaign in the county.

In the first-year phase of the project, the city government of Osaka will offer 2 million yuan (US$241,000) to plant more than 430,000 trees around Jianhu Lake, 520 km from the Yunnan provincial capital Kunming.

The county is one of major habitats of the Bai ethnic group. Jianhu Lake is a typical plateau lake at an elevation of 2,186 meters and with a total water area of some 10 million square meters.