HOHHOT, China,
May 15,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report
from chinadaily.com.cn:
In the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, people at the forefront
of the fight against desertification have recently resorted to a
new approach — combining sand control with wind and solar power
projects to tame the once ever-expanding desert.
Sun Shaocheng, the region's Party secretary, said that
innovation is key to the success of the region's broad green
development initiatives, as Inner Mongolia aims to treat nearly
800,000 hectares of desert by 2030 using the new method.
In an interview with China Daily
on Monday, Sun said the new approach was listed as a crucial
regional project at a local Party conference late last year, and is
considered a key move in winning the region's sand control battle,
which has national significance.
"The approach can achieve many benefits in one go," he said.
Constructing an ecological barrier in northern China is a major
task President Xi Jinping bestowed on the region since the 18th
National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, he
said.
Inner Mongolia is a major
battleground for advancing the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest
Program, an ecological project proposed by the Chinese government
in the 1970s to improve the ecological environment in northern
China and to prevent the expansion of desertification.
Sun said the regional government has issued a plan for
integrating sand control and green energy production, with the aim
of completing the treating of around 767,000 hectares of desert and
achieving installed capacity of 119 million kilowatts of new energy
by 2030.
Sun said the region has pledged to better coordinate the
development of new energy projects with sand control and speed up
the construction of centralized solar power plants and power cables
in the "sand, gravel and desert" areas.
Authorities will also explore a model in which crops and animals
can be raised among solar panels, which will result in a win-win
situation of increasing greenery, energy and income, he said.
The target this year is to treat about 153,000 hectares of
desert using this new method and increasing installed capacity of
new energy by 27.27 million kilowatts.
Using all methods combined, the region aims to treat 1 million
hectares of desert this year and 6.46 million hectares by 2030.
About 20 percent of the land in the region is affected by
desertification and sand encroachment, though the region is
considered to be among China's ecologically diverse areas, with
vast swaths of forestry and grassland.
Sun said the region will be responsible for the lion's share of
the construction volume of the Three-North program between 2021 and
2030.
"Inner Mongolia is the primary battleground for combating
desertification and the front line defense against sandstorms," he
said.
"To maximize the benefits and ensure long-term effectiveness of
desert control, we need to look beyond just treating the desert and
focus on holistic management," he said.
Inner Mongolia has innovated in
recent years to combine sand control with food production as China
works to bolster its food security.
Official data show that the region has created 9.13 million
hectares of forests and 22.4 million hectares of grassland since
2012, and has treated 9.87 million hectares of desert.
Contact the writers at
lilei@chinadaily.com.cn
Amy Zhang, 305354281@qq.com
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inner-mongolia-ramping-up-green-efforts-302145966.html
SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn