STORY: Innovation fortifies China's "green Great Wall" against desertification
SHOOTING TIME: Recent footage
DATELINE: June 5, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:46
LOCATION: HOHHOT, China
CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Horqin sandy land in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): CHOGTU, Head of forestry station in Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
3. various of Horqin sandy land in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
4. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): JIANG LONGWEN, Sand control official with Dengkou County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

STORYLINE:   

Horqin sandy land in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is the largest of its kind in China.

It is a key battlefield of China's ambitious Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program (TSFP), which aims to mitigate desertification.

In Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner in eastern Inner Mongolia, workers have been racing against time to build neat rows of square-shaped sand barriers in the desertified land.

Pine tree seedlings are planted in deep pits protected by sand barriers made with straw and covered with a shallow layer of soil.

Through this method, the survival rate of the tree seedlings has increased from about 50 percent during the initiation of the Horqin desertification control under TSFP in 2013 to 90 percent today.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): CHOGTU, Head of forestry station in Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
"Residents and forestry staff in Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner have been working together to mitigate desertification in the Horqin sandy land."

Home to four of China's major deserts and four major sandy areas, Inner Mongolia has long been plagued by desertification and land erosion.

With the progress of the TSFP, Inner Mongolia has vigorously intensified its afforestation efforts.

Today, the region is not just seen as a shield for China's ecological security, but a hotbed for new energy development.

Agrivoltaics combines new energy power generation with agricultural production, offering benefits to both industries and farmers while contributing to expanding greeneries in ecologically fragile sandy areas.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): JIANG LONGWEN, Sand control official with Dengkou County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
"We focus on both photovoltaic power generation and ecological management. We plant water-saving and drought-resistant shrubs under photovoltaic panels. Within three years after planting shrubs, we grow cistanche. Through this method, we not only improve the surrounding environment of the photovoltaic power station but also raise the land utilization rate."

Through strenuous efforts, China has expanded its afforestation area by 32 million hectares under the TSFP since the program was first launched in 1978.
   
In June 2023, China proposed to turn the TSFP into a fully functional and unbreakable "green Great Wall" and ecological security barrier in northern China.

Scheduled to be fully completed in 2050, the TSFP aims to rehabilitate and green desert-prone lands and desertified areas in northwest, north and northeast China.

By 2050, the afforestation area under the TSFP is projected to encompass over 4 million square kilometers across 13 provincial-level regions in China, accounting for 42.4 percent of the country's total land area.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Hohhot, China.
(XHTV)