Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China has seen fruitful achievements in ecological restoration through years of assiduous and dedicated efforts, ushering in a robust comeback of green pastures and lush mountains, which are attributable to President Xi's instruction on building a vital ecological barrier last June during his inspection tour in the region.
Sparse vegetation, large areas of bare soil, and dust everywhere—this was the scene in the northern pit of the open-pit coal mine in Holin River region before 2018.
At that time, the Holin River open-pit coal mine, one of the five largest open-pit coal mines in the country, had an annual coal production of 28 million tonnes from its southern and northern open-pit mines.
While the abundant coal resources drove regional prosperity and development, they also caused severe damage to the ecological environment, with less than 35 percent of the mining area covered by vegetation.
In 2018, a systematic ecological restoration began here, focusing on soil and water management as well as vegetation coverage. Over six years, the southern and northern open-pit mines restored 23,600 mu (about 1,574 hectares) of mining land, with the reclamation greening rate increasing to 97 percent and vegetation coverage rising to 90 percent, effectively restoring ecological functions.
Statistics showed that as of the end of 2023, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has established 344 green mines, including 47 national-level green mines.
Ecological protection efforts have also been made during the construction progress of the Inner Mongolia section of the Hailar-Manzhouli highway as which passes through Erka Wetland Nature Reserve in Hulunbuir.
In order to avoid damaging the ecological environment, the decision to replace roads with bridges along the highway section passing through the wetland became a firm choice at that time.
Inner Mongolia is currently taking action to address overgrazing on its grasslands. In areas like the 6.72 million mu (about 448,000 hectares) of natural grassland in Ulgai, over 900,000 mu (approximately 60,000 hectares) have been designated as no-grazing zones. After a period of recovery, the revitalized grasslands reward the herders with lush grass, and during one hay-cutting season, enough grass is harvested to provide winter feed for over 80,000 cattle.
Before the ecological restoration efforts, Ulan Buh Desert, the eighth-largest in China, had created various difficulties to locals as the sandstorm would unroot the agricultural plants as well as residential houses.
"In every spring at that time, when a sandstorm struck, it would reduce your visibility to less than 100 meters. Even when wheat seedlings were cropping up, they would be uprooted by the sandy gusts. If you built your house near the edge of the desert, it would be buried in a few years," said Tian Jinyuan, Party Secretary of the CPC Branch of Jiudi Village, Bayangol Town of Dengkou County.
To tip the scales, generations of people dedicated to combating desertification have worked tirelessly. Over the past 75 years, they have pushed the eastern edge of the Ulan Buh Desert back by 15 to 25 kilometers to the west. The vegetation coverage in the desert area has increased from 0.04 percent to 37.2 percent, and severely desertified land has been reduced by 78 percent.
At present, a new protective forest belt, composed of trees and shrubs, is being built intensively. In the future, it will become another green barrier within the Ulan Buh Desert.
"The main tree species being planted are saxaul and four-wing saltbush. We plan to introduce Cistanche deserticola next year, which can yield an economic benefit of up to 3,000 yuan (about 421.76 U.S. dollars) per mu," said Jiang Longwen, deputy director of Dengkou County Sand Forest Management and Protection Center.
Nowadays, industrial desertification control has become an important method for combating desertification in Inner Mongolia. In Inner Mongolia, the "photovoltaic + ecological management" model has formed a replicable and scalable approach to desertification prevention and control, contributing a "Chinese solution" and "Chinese wisdom" to combating desertification.
Inner Mongolia see fruitful achievements in ecological restoration
