Alipay Contributes To Coastal Ecosystem Restoration

Alipay has added a new option for users to contribute to the restoration of coastal ecosystems. Alipay Ant Forest is a green initiative within the Alipay app that encourages users to live a low-carbon lifestyle.

Photo Insert: Alipay users can now convert their "green energy points" to grow virtual aquatic plants like seaweed and eelgrass with this new feature.

“By introducing this new option, we are confident that Alipay Ant Forest can play its role as a green platform to encourage more users to participate in not only reforestation and biodiversity conservation, but also marine conservation efforts,” said Cheng Jiang, head of Alipay Ant Forest.

Previously, when users chose a low-carbon lifestyle via the Alipay app or products or services provided by Alipay Ant Forest's brand partners, they earned virtual "green energy points" that could be used to support tree-planting or biodiversity conservation projects run by Alipay Ant Forest's environmental partners. Ant Group funds these user-generated donations.

The low-carbon lifestyle choices include paying utility bills online instead of requesting paper invoices, ordering food delivery with the “no disposable cutlery” and “no plastic packaging” options checked, and purchasing energy-efficient home appliances from partner brands.

Users can now convert their "green energy points" to grow virtual aquatic plants like seaweed and eelgrass with this new feature. Alipay Ant Forest matches these efforts by making donations to environmental organizations that run coastal ecosystem restoration projects.

As of August 2021, Alipay Ant Forest had collaborated with over 100 brands and assisted over 600 million users in planting over 326 million trees in some of China's most arid regions, as well as collaborating with various environmental NGOs to provide shelter for over 1,500 species in 18 protected areas across the country.

In 2019, Alipay Ant Forest received the United Nations' highest environmental honor, the "UN Champions of the Earth" award, for leveraging digital technology to inspire hundreds of millions of people to take greener actions in their daily lives.

In addition, Alipay Ant Forest received the 2019 UN Global Climate Action Award for its use of digital technologies to scale up climate action.

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