On June 17, the world’s 30th Desertification and Drought Day and the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention To Combat Desertification, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian proudly announced a major achievement, that should be considered a milestone: As of now, China has halted the yearly expansion of its deserts. Over the last 40 years, despite all efforts, 15% of China’s land turned into desert, covering a total of 27% of its territory. As a reminder, China has to feed 22% of the world’s population, with only 10% of the world’s arable land.
To face that challenge, in 1978, the Communist Party of China had adopted a 72-year program (1978-2050) against desertification called the Three-North Shelterbelt Program (TNSP). The idea was to plant a series of wind-breaking forest strips (shelterbelts) in areas around China’s Great Wall, this time designed to hold back the expansion of the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts, and to provide timber for local populations.
From 2009 to 2019, with what it called its “Great Green Wall,” desertified land in China underwent a net decrease of 50,000 sq. km, a significant change compared to an expansion of 3,436 sq. km a year at the end of the last century. According to China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration, forest and grassland vegetation in key project areas has been effectively restored after 46 years of management, and the key management areas have achieved an historic transformation from “sand forcing humans to retreat” to “trees forcing sand to retreat.” Optimistically turning an enemy into an ally, agricultural and industrial expansion in these areas is now called “sand mining.”
In his June 17 remarks, Lin said in part: “Since 1978, the Sanbei Protective Forest project has added 32 million hectares to afforestation area, and treated 85.3 million hectares of degraded grassland and 33.3 million hectares of desertified land. … We created the world’s largest man-made forest in Saihanba, realized the world’s largest scale ecological restoration project in Maowusu and found a new approach of combating desertification through industry development in Kubuqi. …
“China’s effort turbocharged the process of creating a cleaner and more beautiful world. We are the first country in the world to achieve zero net land degradation and reduce both desertification and sandification, making important contribution to meeting the global goal of zero net land degradation by 2030. … We are actively forging synergy with the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa and the Middle East Green Initiative through mechanisms including the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. The China-Arab International Research Center for Drought, Desertification, and Land Degradation was set up last year and the first batch of cooperation projects have been launched. The China-Mongolia Desertification Prevention and Control Cooperation Center unveiled in Mongolia last year is now supporting Mongolia in implementing its plan to plant 1 billion trees. The cooperation between China and other countries in combating desertification has made more countries greener.”
