«Данное сообщение (материал) создано и (или) распространено иностранным средством массовой информации, выполняющим функции иностранного агента, и (или) российским юридическим лицом, выполняющим функции иностранного агента»

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A big part of it has just been completed. Its effect is hotly debated

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In ancient times the shifting sands of the Taklamakan, a desert in China’s north-western Xinjiang region, swallowed up entire cities. Today they still cause trouble. On the edges of the desert, sand can smother crops, bury houses and block roads. Strong winds can also carry it thousands of miles away to choke the inhabitants of Beijing and other cites in the east.

Officials have long hoped that trees could help solve the problem, by acting as windbreaks and anchoring the ground in place with their roots. For decades they have been planting a ring of vegetation round the desert’s edge that is 3,000km long and over 1km wide in places. This year hundreds of thousands of workers were mobilised to finish the last stretch. On November 28th the final section of trees was planted in Yutian county, on the southern side of the Taklamakan. The desert is now “locked shut”, say officials.

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The Taklamakan project is just one part of a scheme dating back to the 1970s. At that time China was losing about 1,500 square kilometres of land to deserts each year thanks to deforestation and overgrazing of grasslands. So in 1978 officials started to plant trees in arid areas across northern China (see map). Collectively, these desert-taming projects were named the Three North Shelterbelt Programme. It is due to be completed by 2050, when it will have formed an “unbreakable green Great Wall”, according to government plans.

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⇒All of our China coverage

China boasts that the scheme has already been a great success and highlights its technological prowess. According to official data, tree cover in arid areas of northern China has increased from 5% to 14% since the project began. These new trees have protected 23m hectares of agricultural land from desert sands, say officials. And the green wall may have even turned the sands back a fraction. A decade ago 27.2% of China’s total land area was desert. Now that proportion has fallen to 26.8%.

But not all this progress is thanks to the green wall. A big reason China’s deserts are no longer expanding is that northern China is seeing more rain, say researchers at the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, a state-backed think-tank. Human efforts, such as planting trees, have accounted for only about half the reduction in the size of deserts over the past two decades, the researchers estimated. (Others studies have found that afforestation had even less of an effect.)

Critics also question how sustainable the green wall is. For decades local officials rushed to plant trees in order to hit targets set by the government. Many were unsuited to the arid climates of northern China, so they failed to sprout or quickly died. Others were packed in too densely, draining the region’s groundwater reserves and making desertification more likely.

Some of the people meant to benefit from the green wall have been alienated by it. Farmers grumble that they are forbidden to plant cash crops on land set aside for the project. In 2017 farmers in Gansu province were accused of felling trees and planting vineyards in their place.

Chinese officials seem to be learning from their mistakes. Over the past few years they have been creating the wall in a more sophisticated way, planting different types of trees, shrubs and grasses, depending on local ecosystems. They have also let farmers plant more profitable trees, such as those bearing dates and walnuts.

Lately China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has been more sombre when discussing the challenges facing the green-wall project. After a spike in the number of sandstorms affecting Beijing last year, which spurred debate over the effectiveness of afforestation, Mr Xi met officials in Inner Mongolia, a region of northern China prone to desertification. Beating back the desert would be “arduous and uncertain”, he told them, akin to “rolling a stone up a hill”. ■

For coverage of climate change, sign up for the Climate Issue, our fortnightly subscriber-only newsletter, or visit our climate-change hub.

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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Trees to the rescue”

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China

December 7th 2024

• →Fresh doubts about China’s ability to invade Taiwan
• →Will China’s “green Great Wall” save it from encroaching sands?
• →Chinese women are making themselves heard on the big screen

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From the December 7th 2024 edition

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Panama symbolises the Sino-American struggle for influence

The superpowers use soft and hard power

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Tensions with the West are fuelling China’s anxiety about food supplies

Grain pains are growing

Hail China’s new “ice-and-snow economy”

The country is betting on winter sports and tourism to boost growth in its rustbelt

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Источник: www.economist.com