Alternative Environmental Policies in China: Reforestation through Public Engagement

This article examines Ant Forest, Alipay’s gamified afforestation initiative, through the lens of environmental constitutionalism in China. While constitutionalism is often associated with liberal constraints on power, China’s constitutional order embeds ecological imperatives as state duties, most notably in Article 26 and the ‘Beautiful China’ vision. Ant Forest illustrates how these directives are operationalized beyond state institutions, mobilizing private innovation and public participation in support of national reforestation goals. At once symbolic and practical, the project demonstrates both the strengths and limitations of constitutional environmentalism in China’s non-liberal context, bridging state policy, societal engagement, and ecological governance.