中文       Deutsch       Français       日本語
Search      Subscribe
Home   Nation   World   Business   Opinion   Lifestyle   China Focus   ChinAfrica   Video   Multimedia   Columnists   Documents   Special Reports
Nation
Bringing Back Vegetation
China and African countries cooperate to curb desertification
By Hu Fan  ·  2019-07-28  ·   Source: NO.31 AUGUST 1, 2019

Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography staff and African trainees during a visit to a project on desertification control in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 2017 (COURTESY PHOTO)

Xu Xinwen, a 56-year-old researcher, is a warrior, but not in the conventional sense. For 21 years, he has been battling against a very different enemy—sand—in the desert in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which is home to the largest arid land in the country.

A researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xu has dedicated much of his life to building China's Great Green Wall, a project initiated in 1978 aimed at planting a shelter belt from northwest to northeast China in areas vulnerable to sand hazards and soil loss. With an area of 4 million square km, the project has involved hundreds of millions of people in the fight against desertification.

Having garnered rich experience, Xu is now part of a team taking part in a similar project on the other side of the world, with a similar name: the Great Green Wall of Africa.

In 2007, under the leadership of the African Union, 11 African countries, including Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia, joined the Great Green Wall initiative. It is described as "an epic ambition to grow a 7,600-km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa," according to the program's official website. Currently, more than 20 African countries have joined the project.

Xu became involved in the initiative when the China-Africa Joint Research Center was set up in 2013. As a participant, XIEG established an office with organizations in Mauritania, one of the African Great Green Wall participating countries, to conduct research on the prevention of desertification. In 2018, XIEG set up a Pan-Africa Great Green Wall Research Center to provide technological support for the program.

"We are in a good position to provide support to Africa with our technology and experience gained in Xinjiang," Xu told Beijing Review, adding that the similarities in the causes of desertification in Xinjiang and Africa make it possible to apply Chinese expertise in the region.

Technological support

XIEG was established in 1998, originating from two institutes for desert studies and geology that were established in the 1960s. Since then, it has accumulated vast experience and technologies in desertification control and development of ecological industries.

Its technology was first introduced in Africa in 2009. Invited by the Libyan Government, XIEG provided a comprehensive solution for controlling typical sand hazards along a desert road in Murzuq in southwest Libya. This example became a landmark for the later introduction of Chinese desertification control technologies in Africa.

According to XIEG, after the launch of China's Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, more intensive cooperation was carried out with African Great Green Wall countries.

In August 2017, XIEG provided a 14-day training course for some 20 people from these countries. Chinese techniques in Xinjiang's anti-desertification project along with hands-on field studies gave the trainees a deeper understanding of the solutions available. A progress report detailing the specific needs of the various African countries along the Great Green Wall was also compiled.

One month later, XIEG officially became a provider of technological support for the Great Green Wall initiative by signing agreements with related countries at the 13th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification held in Ordos in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Xu believes there is ample room for this cooperation. "Based on our investigations in Africa, our technology in desertification control is needed there, especially for the construction of the Great Green Wall," he explained.

XIEG is now busy with a new national research program, started in 2018, to assist green cooperation with Africa. The program is dedicated to finding technologies suitable for the building of the African Great Green Wall. It focuses on diagnosing key technical problems with the building of the wall and assessing the suitability of China's technology, materials and products for desertification control in Africa.

The Kubuqi model

Chinese companies in the ecological industry may provide a solution. With their success in developing the desert economy in China, they are exploring possibilities to bring ecological projects to Africa.

In October 2018, the ELION Group, an ecological company in Inner Mongolia, another major area subject to severe desertification in China, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Council of the Oriental Region of Morocco in Oujda to address desertification in that region. They were considering forest restoration and clean energy development as likely areas of cooperation, according to ELION President Wang Wenbiao.

In the same month, ELION signed another MoU with Nigeria's southern province of Imo on projects involving desertification control, agriculture and development of new energy resources.

These cooperation projects followed the conclusion of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held a month earlier, where China proposed green development, including desertification control, as part of its eight major initiatives to expand cooperation with Africa.

Wang said ELION's experience in desertification control over its 30 years of management of Inner Mongolia's Kubuqi Desert, the seventh largest desert in China with an area of about 18,600 square km, could be helpful in Africa.

Since its founding in 1988 as a salt producer in Kubuqi, ELION has been contributing to greening the desert. In so doing, it has developed what is called the Kubuqi model, a sustainable approach of balancing a desert economy and environmental protection. By developing industries suitable for the desert, such as solar energy and licorice planting, as well as carrying out large-scale anti-desertification projects, the desert economy is thriving and the economic gains in return provide funds for further control efforts.

"This model is suitable for regions where the environment is harsh, vulnerable or contaminated, as is the case in Africa," Wang told Beijing Review.

Thirty years down the line, Kubuqi is a vastly different place. In 2016, vegetation coverage in the desert increased to 53 percent from 3-5 percent in 1988. The revenue generated has lifted more than 100,000 local people living in the desert out of poverty.

Balance is the key

Speaking on the prospects of China-Africa cooperation over desertification control, Xu said desertification is caused partly by natural factors such as climate change and partly by human activity. It is difficult for humans to change nature, so it is impossible to solve desertification 100 percent at this point, he said. But Xu remains optimistic that with proper control measures, the part of desertification caused by human activity can be addressed.

The success of initiatives in Kubuqi adds weight to his view.

In the distant past, the desert was once a fertile, lush land along the northern rim of the Yellow River, one of China's key waterways. Desertification only began with the influx of people into this area during the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 25). Intensified human activity transformed Kubuqi into a desert over the past two centuries.

This story is similar to what happened in Africa. Studies show that the massive Sahara Desert was covered with lush vegetation 10,000 years ago, until the arrival of humans.

"For desertification control, the key is to find a balance between the limited resources in deserts, especially water resources, and the human need for these resources," said Xu. "If we plan reasonably, make rational use of resources and live in peace with the environment, we will suffer less from desertification; otherwise, nature will take its revenge on us."

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

Comments to zanjifang@bjreview.com

About Us    |    Contact Us    |    Advertise with Us    |    Subscribe
Partners: China.org.cn   |   China Today   |   China Pictorial   |   People's Daily Online   |   Women of China   |   Xinhua News Agency   |   China Daily
CGTN   |   China Tibet Online   |   China Radio International   |   Beijing Today   |   gb times   |   China Job.com   |   Eastday   |   CCN
Copyright Beijing Review All rights reserved 京ICP备08005356号 京公网安备110102005860号
Print
Chinese Dictionary: