Tree-planting Project Spreads Green to Desert

Chen Ningbu, a herdsman from Hanggin banner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, looks at a panel showing an afforestation project in the Kubuqi Desert at an exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up in the National Museum of China in Beijing on Monday. [Photo by Ma Chi/chinadaily.com.cn]

"The sands piled up outside our house, blocking the door overnight. We had to get out through the window and used shovel to clear the sand," said Chen Ningbu, a 70-year-old resident from Hanggin banner in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Chen told reporters about what life in the Kubuqi Desert was like when visiting an exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up on Monday.

"We lived in adobe huts which would be buried by moving sand every a few years, so we had to move frequently," he said.

Hanggin banner was plagued by sands blown from the Kubuqi Desert for generations. The desert, about 800 kilometers west of Beijing, is the seventh-largest in China and a source of sandstorms that threaten the capital city.

"In the spring, sandstorms hit our village often. When it came, the sky was covered and got dark. The sand hit people's faces, leaving bruises and swollen eyelids," he said.

Since a greening project was initiated three decades ago, the lives of local residents have seen tremendous changes and desert areas reduced significantly.

Elion Resources Group, a local enterprise, launched the tree-planting initiative in 1988. To help local farmers and herdsmen shake off poverty, the company hires them to plant and take care of trees. The enterprise provides seedlings to residents and pays them if the trees survive and meet standards.

Chen Ningbu, the herdsman, said in the beginning one could earn 20-odd yuan by working a day in the desert planting, watering or pruning trees, and now a day's hard work could bring 300 to 400 yuan.

He said the tree-planting program not only benefits local residents, but also migrant workers from neighboring provinces and regions such as Gansu, Shaanxi and Ningxia.

Over the past three decades, over 6,000 square kilometers of Kubuqi Desert, or one-third of its area, have been covered by vegetation.

In addition to planting trees, Elion has also developed a multi-industry mode to keep the greening project sustainable financially.

Licorice, a widely-used Chinese medicinal herb which is able to improve soil, has been grown in the desert. The cultivation of the herb has boosted growers' income while fertilizing the soil.

Elion also capitalizes on abundant sunshine in the desert to develop solar power.

Zhang Xiangqian is a local herdsman who works at an construction team to set up solar power panels in the desert.

Zhang said solar power panels can slow winds and reduce evaporation of water, providing a more agreeable environment for plants to grow.

Plants such as licorice can be grown in the shade of the panels and geese and chicken roam among them, fertilizing the ground with excrement.

Zhang said the construction team, which employs more than 100 people, gives priority to impoverished villagers in employment to boost their income.

More than 2,000 hectares of solar power panels have been erected so far, with an installed generation capacity of 510 MW, according to Elion.

A solar power farm in Kubuqi Desert. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Over the past three decades, more than 100,000 local residents have been lifted out of poverty thanks to the afforestation project and other desert industries in Kubuqi. And average annual income per capita for impoverished families has risen from less than 400 to 15,000 yuan.

"In the past, we were so poor you young people could not imagine. In one family with three children, there was only one pair of pants. So only one child could go outside at a time," Chen said.

"As there was no road in the desert, children went to school from the age of 12 or 13. When we got ill, we could not go to the hospital and had to eat painkillers or give injections to ourselves to ease the pain."

Now most people in his village have moved into new houses, and have stable incomes from tree planting and other jobs, Chen said.

"The natural environment has improved a lot."

"In the past, vegetation was scarce and could support only a few animals. One family could only raise a maximum of a few cows and goats, but now a large farm could rear up to 500 cows," he said.

"I thank the government and Elion Group for changing my life, and I want to continue planting trees to further improve the environment of Kubuqi."