STORY: China demonstrates how to restore degraded land at large scale: UN official
SHOOTING TIME: Dec. 6, 2024
DATELINE: Dec. 8, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:23
LOCATION: Riyadh
CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
2. SOUNDBITE (English): IBRAHIM THIAW, Executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

STORYLINE:

The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

During his Friday tour of COP16's China Pavilion, UNCCD executive secretary Ibrahim Thiaw was impressed by China's decades-long efforts in desertification control.

SOUNDBITE (English): IBRAHIM THIAW, Executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
"They demonstrated here what you can do in restoring degraded land at a large scale. From what I hear, half of the degraded lands in China have already been restored and they have a plan for the next few years to actually complete that plan.
It is just extraordinary to see how much traditional knowledge is combined with technologies and new technologies, how much programming long-term vision is combined with the need to have short-term solutions, and how much business is associated with ecology to create a positive movement that is needed to actually bring land back to health.
So, with China, I think we have a good example of what can be done in degraded lands. From an economic point of view, it is socially profitable. It creates millions of jobs, and it is also an area where we can apply new technologies, drones, computers, traditional knowledge, manual work. Everything is combined to make things happen."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Riyadh.
(XHTV)