Skip navigation
Journal article

Desertification control practices in China

This article presents lessons learned from 60 years of desertification control in China.

Guoyi Han / Published on 19 May 2020

Read the paper  Open access

Citation

Lyu, Y., Shi, P., Han, G., Liu, L., Guo, L., Hu, X. and Zhang, G. (2020). Desertification control practices in China. Sustainability, 12(8). 3258. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083258

The national ecological demonstration area in Engebei, Ordos, Inner Mongolia. Photo: Liancai Fang, from Lyu et al. under CC BY license.

As a country plagued by extensive sandy desertification and frequent sandstorms and dust storms, China has been trying to find ways to achieve the sustainable management of its desertified lands.

In the past six decades, government policies, forestry and desertification control programmes, combined with eco-industrialization development, have been among measures integrated to control desertification in northern China. Interventions including afforestation, the rehabilitation of mobile sandy lands, and water conservation have facilitated the return of arid and semi-arid ecosystems to a more balanced state.

China’s practices in desertification control could provide valuable knowledge for sustainable management of desertified lands around the world.

This article reviews the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on desertified areas in China, and the actions tried, outcomes achieved and lessons learned in desertification control.

Read the paper

Open access

SEI author

Guoyi Han
Guoyi Han

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Headquarters

Read the paper
To the article Open access
Topics and subtopics
Climate : Adaptation / Water : Adaptation
Related centres
SEI Headquarters
Regions
China

Design and development by Soapbox.