Xinjiang protects its environment in accordance with the law. It has drawn up detailed plans and regulations first to protect the environment. It enacted the Zoning Program of Major Functional Areas of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and amended or issued a series of local regulations, including the Regulations of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Environmental Protection, Regulations of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Environmental Protection in the Development of Coal, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Regulations of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on Wetland Conservation of the Autonomous Region, and Regulations of Urumqi City on Air Pollution Prevention and Control. It now has 31 natural reserves of various kinds at or above the autonomous region level, 18 scenic spots, 52 forest parks, nine geoparks, one world natural heritage site, and 16 wetland parks. Fifty-four percent of its wetland areas are under protection, higher than the national average of 43 percent.

Xinjiang has intensified efforts in ecological and environmental protection programs. Since 2010, Xinjiang has planted or protected over 2,500,000 (166,667 ha) of forests by restricting access to mountain areas. Its total forest area and forest stock rank 14th and 12th in China. Now, belts of shelter-forests built to protect farmlands in all of Xinjiang's 82 counties and county-level cities have merged to form a network, 45 counties and county-level cities have reached the national standards in plains afforestation, and 95 percent of farmlands are effectively protected by the shelter-forests. The forest coverage in oases has risen from 15 percent to 23.5 percent, and a total of 3,258,000 (217,200 ha) of farmland has been returned to forest. Major projects for ecological protection have been launched, such as the Million Ecological Economic Forest Project in Ili Valley and the Project for Prevention and Control of Desertification around Tarim Basin, restoring a total of 24.6 million (1.64 million ha) of degraded lands and enclosing 51.6 million (3.4 million ha) of grassland to prevent grazing. It has curbed water and soil erosion over more than 4,000 sq km of small river valleys. The Comprehensive Reclamation Project of Tarim River Valley has provided emergency water supplies to its lower reaches on 15 occasions, gradually restoring prosperity there. In 2014, water quality was good in 94 percent of major rivers and 67.8 percent of lakes and reservoirs, as compared to 88.3 percent and 43.3 percent in 2009. This is much higher than the national average level.

Xinjiang has put in a lot of work to tackle pollution. Joint prevention and control of air pollution has been carried out in areas like Urumqi and Kuytun-Dushanzi-Wusu. There has been a considerable improvement in the air quality of the regional capital, Urumqi. During 2014, the city had 310 days with good air quality, the best ever for 20 years. Xinjiang has piloted environmental protection in some lakes with good water quality, such as Bosten Lake, Sayram Lake, Ulungur Lake and Kanas Lake. In order to safeguard drinking water, it has made great efforts to protect 367 centralized drinking-water source areas, and comprehensively improved the habitat of 1,836 villages. Xinjiang encourages ecological progress through examples. It has built up two national model cities for environmental protection, 43 national-level eco-friendly prefectures, towns and villages, and 1,057 autonomous region-level eco-friendly prefectures, towns and villages.