From employing biotechnological techniques to deploying a range of AI-powered automated machines, China has actively embraced innovations to replace strenuous manual labor in its efforts to build ecological barriers against desertification.

June 17 marked World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. Often described as the "cancer of the earth," desertification is a global challenge affecting more than 100 countries and regions. China, one of the countries most severely impacted, has made significant strides in halting desert expansion through its decades-long afforestation campaign.

Winding through towering sand dunes along the edge of the Tengger Desert, China's fourth-largest, the Lanzhou-Baotou Railway, built in 1958, has not only remained well-maintained and free from encroaching sand over the decades but has also helped transform the barren landscape. Its shelter belts have fostered the growth of biocrust, bringing new life to the once-desolate land.

The green belt protecting this vital transport artery stands as a near-miracle in the arid landscape. Over the past 60 years, massive human efforts have been mobilized in Zhongwei city, in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, to create "straw checkerboard," a dune stabilization technique where straw is laid out in a checkerboard pattern on the desert surface. These grids have provided a foundation for vegetation to take root and gradually transform the sand into green.

Nicknamed the "Chinese Rubik's Cube," the technique is now widely adopted both across China and internationally to increase soil surface roughness, effectively reducing wind erosion in sandy areas.

Within the checkerboards, the sand surface gradually forms a soil crust that helps prevent wind-driven movement. To speed up this process, Chinese researchers have developed lab-cultured cyanobacteria that accelerate the formation of biological soil crusts.

China initiated the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program in 1978 to combat desertification across the northwest, north and northeast of the country. The world's largest afforestation project is still undergoing.

Currently, 53 percent of China's treatable sandy land has been effectively managed through afforestation. The country is not only the first in the world to achieve "zero growth" in land degradation and a "double reduction" in desertified and sandy land areas, but has also transformed its role from a recipient of international desertification control aid to a key contributor to global ecological governance.

China has actively fulfilled its commitments under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification by establishing the International Knowledge Management Center on Combating Desertification in Ningxia in December 2019. The center aims to share China's expertise and experience in desertification control with countries worldwide.

(Source: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202506/19/WS685369ada310a04af22c72f7_3.html)