City in Inner Mongolia launches restoration, conservation projects to counter spreading sands

An aerial photo shows part of the Horqin Desert in the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner on July 19 last year after 10 years of efforts to fight against desertification. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

The Horqin Desert spans the provinces of Jilin and Liaoning and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, covering a total area of 5,175,000 hectares.

The desert covers 2,724,000 hectares of Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. As a result, Tongliao is one of the areas with the most severe desertification in the country and has an extremely fragile ecological environment.

Furthermore, the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner in Tongliao accounts for 17.6 percent of the desert, with an area of 908,000 hectares.

Over the years, Tongliao has made great efforts to fight desertification by launching projects involving grassland restoration and water conservation. It also banned grazing, and put a total of 1,423,000 hectares of desert under control.

The Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner is located in the heartland of the desert. Over the years, the banner has implemented comprehensive governance over a total of 568,000 hectares of the desert.

A worker moves a pine seedling at a desert-governance project area in the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia autonomous region on April 16, 2021. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Workers receive supplies of drinking water during a break in the banner on July 11, last year. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Tree growers prepare to plant caragana shrubs in the Horqin Desert on April 28, 2021. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

A tractor is used to deliver pine seedlings to a planting site in the banner on April 7, 2021. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Workers prepare to unload tree seedlings at a planting site on June 29. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

A tree planter waters seedlings at a desert-governance area in the banner on Oct 18, 2018. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Pine seedlings are delivered to a planting site by a tractor on April 7, 2021. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Ranger Guo Li demonstrates how to set up an infrared camera to local students for wildlife monitoring in the banner on Oct 1. (HUA WEIGUANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)