On a sunny August morning, Li Guobao carefully tended his farmland of sand leeks in the Baijitan national ecological reserve of Lingwu City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, hoping that this will bring economic benefits and encourage more people to join the cause of afforestation.
Lingwu, located on the southwest edge of the vast Maowusu Desert, one of China's major deserts, was once subjected to severe sand encroachment, with the desert occupying farmlands and houses and forcing tens of thousands of people to relocate.
The harsh environment prompted people to fight desertification in order to reclaim the land robbed by the desert.
Amid the ongoing afforestation efforts, people developed the straw checkerboard technique to fix sand dunes. The checkerboards are composed of numerous straw squares. The squares are normally one meter by one meter, with half of the straw buried in the sand.
The checkerboards are easy to build and have remarkable windbreaking capabilities. They can also help to keep dune sand in place, allowing soil to form. After enough soil is in place, drought-resistant plants can be grown.
Thanks to three generations of dedicated sand control efforts, 680,000 mu (45,333 hectares) of forest has been created in the Baijitan national ecological reserve over the past 71 years. The oasis has now become an important protective barrier for the ecological system in northwestern China.
Besides dedicating themselves to afforestation, locals also created economic benefits by developing eco-tourism and agriculture with local characteristics.
For instance, a total of 1,000 mu of sand leeks are cultivated in Baijitan, which can be harvested all year round. Convenient for storage and transportation, the sand leeks are popular with consumers across the country.
"Growing leeks can bring me an additional 6,000 yuan (about 840 U.S. dollars) per mu every year," said Li, who has a regular job tending the trees in Baijitan.
The success of Baijitan in combating desertification has attracted people from 125 countries and regions to visit and learn from its experience.
"We are ready to share our sand control technology and experience to more places to support the wellbeing of present and future generations," said Wang Xiaolin, head of the technology department of Baijitan.