Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) In late June, the Tengger Desert border-locking project in Ningxia was fully completed. This green barrier, approximately 153 kilometers long and 10 to 38 kilometers wide, acts like a giant lock, firmly securing the desert's edge.
In July of this year, with the complete closure of the 1,856-kilometer-long sand-control belt, the forest-grassland border-locking work of the three major deserts in Inner Mongolia—Badain Jaran, Tengger, and Ulan Buh—was completed.
Previously, the Taklamakan Desert, China's largest desert, had already been locked in place. In November 2024, with the planting of the last rose seedling in the sand, a 3,046-kilometer-long green sand-control belt took shape, marking the world's second largest shifting sand desert being surrounded by a "green Great Wall."
From the northwestern deserts to the banks of the Yellow River, a massive "sand-locking battle" is reshaping China's ecological landscape.
How determined is China in its desertification control efforts to "lock in" the desert?
China is one of the countries most severely affected by desertification in the world, with 2.57 million square kilometers of desertified land. In the past, the "desertification encroaching on human settlements" in northern China was a major obstacle to ecological restoration.
Now, this situation is being systematically reversed.
In 1978, to address the increasingly severe wind erosion and soil erosion in the "Three-North" region (Northwest, North, and Northeast China), China launched the "Three-North" Shelterbelt Project, planned to be completed by 2050, implemented in three phases and eight stages.
After more than 40 years of arduous efforts, key areas have achieved a historic transformation from "desertification encroaching on human settlements" to "greenery advancing on desertification." Forest coverage in the project areas has increased from 5.05% in 1977 to the current 13.84%. The vegetation cover "green line" in the Yellow River basin has shifted westward by 300 kilometers.
"We are not afraid of the Yellow River breaching its banks, but we are afraid of the deserts joining hands." Cui Guipeng, Deputy Director of the General Office of the Three-North Shelterbelt Project Research Institute and Associate Researcher at the Institute of Ecological Protection and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, told Sanlihe that the Three-North Shelterbelt Project has reshaped the landscape of northern China, adhering to a combination of artificial restoration and natural recovery, creating a great feat in human history of rebuilding "green mountains and clear waters."
Currently, the Three-North Shelterbelt Project is in its sixth phase (2021-2030). The symposium on strengthening comprehensive desertification control and promoting the construction of key ecological projects such as the Three-North Shelterbelt Project, held in June 2023, proposed three landmark battles: the battle to control desertification in the Yellow River's "U-shaped bend," the battle to eliminate the Horqin and Hunshandake sandy lands, and the battle to block the edge of the Hexi Corridor-Taklamakan Desert.
Cui Guipeng stated that in the two years since the launch of these three landmark battles, initial landmark results have been achieved. New technologies, models, and ideas such as joint prevention and control, mechanized desertification control, road-based desertification control, and "photovoltaic + desertification control" are gradually being demonstrated and promoted, and new materials and equipment for desertification control are being rapidly developed.
Today, the Horqin Sandy Land has regained its grassland scenery, the Yellow River's "U-shaped bend" presents a beautiful picture of "golden sands, blue sea, and green oasis," and the Taklamakan Desert has donned a "green scarf."
According to Cui Guipeng, the "Three-North" Project has achieved remarkable success in desertification control, effectively curbing ecological degradation and forming an internationally leading Chinese solution. The core of its success lies in China's consistent and continuously deepening scientific desertification control strategy. Technological power permeates the entire process of desertification control, driving innovation in governance concepts, technologies, and results, playing a crucial role as an accelerator and catalyst.
Now, the application of new concepts and technologies has ushered in the 2.0 era of science and technology-based desertification control. Cui Guipeng stated that science and technology-based desertification control emphasizes guidance from systems science, comprehensively utilizing multidisciplinary methods such as remote sensing monitoring, big data analysis, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and new materials science to achieve precision, intelligence, and sustainability from macro-planning to micro-level governance.
The profound value of the "Three-North" Project goes far beyond simply locking down the desert.
The virtuous cycle of ecological improvement and economic development has made the "Three-North" Project a truly beneficial project. For example, over the past 40 years, the annual output of dried and fresh fruits from economic forests in the "Three-North" project area has increased from less than 2 million tons to 48 million tons, with a total annual output value of 120 billion yuan. More than 15 million people have achieved stable poverty alleviation through specialized forestry and fruit industries.
Cui Guipeng believes that the "Three-North" Project has not only improved the ecological environment of northern China but also enhanced the well-being of the region's residents. His research team's calculations show that the total value of desert ecosystem services was approximately 4.2 trillion yuan (at current prices) in 2014, and reached 5.7 trillion yuan in 2019.
This is a vivid practice of the "Two Mountains" theory: ecological restoration has revitalized land resources, turning deserts into fertile ground for wealth.
The continued advancement of desertification control projects cannot be separated from strong support at the national level.
Since 2024, the "Three-North" Project has been included in the "two major" construction scope by the National Development and Reform Commission, with 57.7 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds and central government funds allocated to comprehensively promote the implementation of three landmark campaigns in key areas.
From the transformation of Saihanba from barren wasteland to forest, to the transformation of the Kubuqi Desert from a "dead sea" to an oasis, and the completion of the ecological barrier around the Tarim Basin, these extended green defense lines are not only milestones in China's desertification control efforts but also showcase China's solution for ecological civilization construction to the world.
The moment the desert is "locked in," what is unlocked is a beautiful future of harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.
