For half a century, millions of workers have repeated a task across the deserts in northern China: inserting forearm-length sticks into shifting sand, first in a row, then in an intersecting line, gradually forming a grid. Then saplings are planted at the center of each small square.
The technique, known as “straw checkerboards”, is a simple yet widely used method to stabilize sand dunes against the wind and help plants take root by using water supplied through an irrigation system.
The widespread lattice it created across the sand has become the iconic image of China’s decades-long campaign against the spreading of desert conditions, known as the Three-North Protective Forest Program or the Green Great Wall.
The generations of work have yielded measurable progress, but scientists caution that preserving the gains will require decades of continued effort.
For a long time, drought, overgrazing and farming removed vegetation, harmed the soil and made areas vulnerable to wind and sandstorms. That kind of degradation of the land over time is known as desertification. The area of desertified land in northern China peaked in 2000, and it has been reduced by over 1,000 square kilometers (400 square miles) each year since then, according to data published by state media.
The Chinese government said the initiative launched in 1978 has played a crucial role in transforming vast regions covering nearly half of China from “the desertification advancing and people retreating” to “greenery advancing and the desertification retreating”. Forests planted by the program now cover a cumulative 500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles).
“The broad significance of the Three-North Program is not only the scale of restoration, but the long-term political commitment behind it”, said Barron Joseph Orr, chief scientist for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. In a response to The Associated Press, he wrote that reversing desertification is possible when it becomes part of long-term development strategies.
Elsewhere, efforts to combat desertification have included a project launched in Africa in 2007 to plant trees across a number of countries to hold back the Sahara Desert.
The progress is the result of the efforts of frontline sand-control workers, along with top-level planning and substantial state investment, said Zhu Jiaojun, a scientist at the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has long been dedicated to the construction and management of the program. He added that increased rainfall in recent years in some areas has made vegetation restoration easier. “The achievement of desertification combat is due to people’s hard work and a bit of luck with climate”, he said.
According to long-term monitoring data by Zhu’s team, China’s desertified land has shrunk by around 10% overall since 2000, and areas of severely or extremely desertified land have decreased by more than 40%. Forest cover in the program area has risen from around 5% in 1978 to 14% in 2022.
Zhu estimated that over 300 million rural laborers have been involved in the program, mostly on a paid, part-time basis.
Orr maintained that restored ecosystems in drylands can become increasingly self-sustaining over time, but they still require careful management and long-term monitoring, with success depending on factors such as water availability and soil health.
The environmental advocacy group Green Camel Bell in Gansu province work to explain desertification and its risks to farmers and herders, plant trees with them in dryland areas, and help restore and sustain vegetation.
“Efforts to combat desertification and restore forests should be linked to local livelihoods, so communities do not see economic development and ecological protection as an either-or choice”, said their founder Zhao Zhong.
Orr agreed that restoration efforts have a much greater chance of succeeding if they’re structured to help communities benefit economically.
