Beijing is engaged in a decades-long effort to push back against the expanding Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts, a challenge impacting millions and prompting one of the world’s moast ambitious ecological projects. Since 1978, China’s “Great Green Wall,” officially the Three-north Shelter Forest Program, has involved planting over 66 billion trees across a massive swathe of northern China and bordering nations. While aiming to combat desertification and improve air quality, the project’s long-term efficacy remains a point of scientific debate, as ongoing expansion of the deserts-like the Gobi’s annual encroachment of 3,600 square kilometers-highlights the complexities of large-scale environmental intervention.
Jakarta –
China’s ambitious “Great Green Wall,” a massive ecological engineering project aimed at slowing the expansion of the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts, has seen over 66 billion trees planted since 1978. The initiative, officially known as the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, reflects a growing global concern over desertification and its impact on ecosystems and populations.
The project, spanning China’s borders with Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, aims to combat increasing soil erosion and sand deposition that have worsened since the 1950s due to rapid urbanization and agricultural expansion. Officials plan to plant an additional 34 billion trees over the next 25 years.
Prior to the 1950s, the northern regions of China were already arid, a condition exacerbated by the rain shadow effect created by the Himalayas, which limits precipitation along the country’s border with Mongolia. This geographical factor contributed to the vastness of the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts, which collectively cover 1.6 million square kilometers.
Despite decades of effort, the deserts continue to expand. The Gobi Desert, for example, encroaches on approximately 3,600 square kilometers of Chinese grassland annually. This desertification not only damages ecosystems and agricultural land but also worsens pollution in cities like Beijing, as sandstorms carry dust particles across vast distances.
Last year, government representatives announced that vegetation had been successfully established around the Taklamakan Desert, helping to stabilize sand dunes and increasing forest cover from around 10% of China’s territory in 1949 to over 25% today. Tree planting will continue around the Taklamakan to maintain and expand these forested areas.
If the project proceeds as planned, the Great Green Wall is projected to stretch 4,500 kilometers by 2050, becoming the world’s largest human-planted forest. However, the effectiveness of the wall in halting desertification remains a subject of debate.
While some studies suggest the Great Green Wall has reduced the frequency of sandstorms, others attribute this reduction primarily to natural climate variations. The development underscores the complex interplay between human intervention and natural forces in combating environmental challenges.
Critics have raised concerns about the low survival rate of trees and shrubs, potentially due to the limited diversity of species used – primarily poplar and willow – making the wall vulnerable to disease. High tree mortality rates are also attributed to planting in areas with insufficient water, requiring ongoing human intervention for survival.
The monoculture nature of the Great Green Wall also limits its support for biodiversity compared to more diverse native plant mixes. Nevertheless, the Chinese program has inspired the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa, an ambitious plan to create an 8,000-kilometer-long belt of trees across the continent to combat land degradation and desertification.
(fyk/fyk)
