Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, in northwestern China, has been in a battle against the desert
since the 1950s.
Over half of its land has been lost to it.
This is some of the most serious desertification seen in China.
Encroaching deserts and severe sandstorms pose an acute threat to the lives and livelihoods
of the local people.
“It used to be desert here.
The dust storm was so strong that we couldn’t keep our eyes open.”
“It was all sand with no grass at all then.”
In 2012, an $80 million loan from the World Bank helped step up the local government’s
effort to combat desertification.
The money funded activities to fix moving sand dunes, rehabilitate degraded land and
restore vegetation, and establish shelter forests, with an aim to stop and reverse the
desertification trend.
Straw checkerboards are put on the dunes and drought-resistant shrubs are planted to stabilize
and keep the dune in place.
The invention of a portable seedling tool has increased the survival rate of plants
by 25% while halving the labor cost.
At the edge of the desert, a shelter forest of mixed coniferous and broadleaved trees
has been grown using drip irrigation, protecting the local communities and farms from wind
and sand.
Overgrazing, a primary cause for land degradation, has been banned.
Sheep and goats are corralled so the degraded pasture can rest and recover.
“With the grazing ban and revegetation, a soil crust has formed on the dune surface
which prevents the sand from shifting.
Now there are fewer dusty days, some multi-year pasture grasses are reappearing, and biodiversity
is improving.”
The program also creates jobs and increase incomes for the local communities, helping
reduce poverty.
“Desert control and reforestation have made a big difference in our lives.
There are fewer sandstorms.
The desert is turning into an oasis.
We grow greenhouse vegetables on the desert.
I have four greenhouses and earn more than RMB 100,000 yuan ($14,800) a year.”
Some farmers make a living by making straw checkerboards, and profit from selling straw
that used to be thrown away after harvest.
“Every day from May to August, we hire about 800 farmers to make straw checkerboards.
In the last six years, we paid almost RMB 70 million yuan ($10 million) to farmers as
salary, and an additional RMB 16 million yuan ($2.38 million) to buy straw from farmers.
It has also boosted transportation and had wider social benefits.”
“This project has contributed enormously to Ningxia’s ecological development and
desertification control.
It has rehabilitated 830,000 mu (55,000 hectares) of desertified land, improved the environment
and curbed further deterioration.
In project monitoring, we saw the vegetation cover of the area covered with straw checkerboards
has increased to over 30% and in the shelterbelt forest area, to 60%.
It has played a very big role in improving the local environment and protecting the key
infrastructure in the neighborhood.”
Ningxia’s experience has also helped other countries, with officials from the Middle
East visiting to learn about the anti-desertification program.
We have very good information that we can use it in our countries and apply it in our
countries because we have maybe the same climate like here in Ningxia.
“Its (the project’s) social impact and linkage to people’s lives is far beyond
the scope of the project.
It will affect not only our generation but future generations.”