Seagate Technology, the US manufacturer of hard disk drives, and China Green Foundation have unveiled a joint project in Shanhaiguan, which is a district of Qinhuangdao city in Hebei province, to raise awareness on environmental protection.

The Seagate Ecological Program aims to plant cherry trees over 2.67 hectares of land in Shanhaiguan, and the annual profit from selling cherries would be donated to local primary school education, according to company and local government officials.

Sun Dan, president of Seagate's China region, and officials from the local forestry bureau planted some trees at the project launch recently.

Chen Meina, director, department of company cooperation at the foundation, spoke of the need to combine ecological protection with development of the local economy and education.

In 2014, Seagate and the foundation started the Seagate Ecological Forest Program in China, and planted saxaul trees on 66.7 hectares of land in the Alashan desert that's located in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. It aims to bring economic benefits to local herders, who also grow the desert plant cistanche, used in traditional Chinese medicine, and which lives as a parasite on saxaul trees.

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