History of the progression of desertification and its control in China - 2003-2020s

History of the progression of desertification and its control in China - 2003-2020s

Desertification in northern China has progressed rapidly since the late 1990s, with the expansion of the Gobi Desert in particular emerging as a major problem.
Between 1994 and 1999, the Gobi Desert expanded by approximately 52,400 square kilometers and came within 240 kilometers of the capital city of Beijing.
In addition to the arid climate, overgrazing, deforestation, and excessive use of grassland have resulted in widespread desertification, particularly in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,
As of 2020, the desertification area had reached approximately 267 million square kilometers, accounting for about 27% of China's total land area.

One of the factors contributing to desertification is the overgrazing of livestock such as sheep and goats. The number of livestock across China amounts to about 260,000,000, far exceeding the number of livestock in the United States, which is about 80,000,000.
In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in particular, about 3 head of livestock are grazing on grassland where 0.6 head per hectare is considered adequate, eating away the roots of the plants, exposing the soil and making it more susceptible to being blown away by the wind.
As a result, it is estimated that approximately 15,000 square kilometers of grassland are turning into desert every year.

To address this serious situation, the Chinese government launched the "Sanbei Protective Forest Project" (also known as the "Green Great Wall") in 1978, a large-scale afforestation program to curb desertification.
The plan is to establish a windbreak forest zone totaling 4,500 kilometers by 2050, and by the 2020s, more than 50 billion trees will have been planted, covering more than 250,000 square kilometers of desert area.
This has led to the restoration of green areas, particularly in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and has achieved some success in reducing the occurrence of dust storms.

Furthermore, in the 2020s, Siemens, an international company, and China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), a domestic energy company in China, are also participating in this project to support vegetation recovery and energy supply in desert areas through the construction of wind power infrastructure.
A large-scale wind power plant supported by Siemens has been installed around the Horqin Desert in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 10000 tons per year.

On the other hand, dust storms generated by desertification contain fine particulate matter such as PM2.5 and PM10, which worsen air pollution in metropolitan areas such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai.
More than 50 days a year are considered dangerous days for air pollution in Beijing, especially in early spring, when yellow dust brings hundreds of thousands of tons of dust particles each year, affecting as far away as Japan and South Korea.
DSS not only affects people's health and crops, but also causes photochemical smog and acid rain, posing a serious environmental risk to neighboring countries.

To address these impacts, the Chinese government is stepping up efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and introduce soil conservation technologies in addition to afforestation activities.
For example, the Soil Improvement Project in collaboration with China Agricultural Development Corporation (CAG) aims to restore vegetation in Inner Mongolia by mixing water retention materials and special fertilizers into the soil to turn the desert into green areas.
This project is expected to be effective in combating desertification, with the goal of greening more than 10,000,000 square kilometers of land by 2025.

Although China's desertification problem has shown some improvement thanks to national-scale projects and the cooperation of multinational companies, many challenges still remain to be solved fundamentally.
As population growth, increasing demand for agriculture, and the effects of climate change accelerate, the control of desertification and sustainable environmental protection will continue to be important issues.