Back in July this year, Madam Monique Barbut, the newly elected Executive Secretary-General of UNCCD, paid a visit toKubuqi in China. She witnessed the achievements and successes of the efforts led by the Elion Group in Kubuqi that have restored an area of more than 600,000 hectares of deserts to oases through a sustainable business model.

Barbutspoke highly of the efforts, best practices and the business model in combating desertification and land-based climate adaptation in China and especially in Kubuqi. She said,Kubuqihas set a good role model and business model for the global community to learn from in terms of degraded land rehabilitation and addressing climate change. The model is an innovation that emphasizes harmony and balance between the ecosystems, the economy and the people.

She appreciated greatly China’s national strategy of ecological civilization and sustainable development along the Silk Road that is fortressed by ambitious targets and actions. And she believes that the efforts to rehabilitate degraded land in China could offer a whole new perspective of the country’s efforts in tackling climate change.

“Chinese society is responding actively to President Xi Jinping’s Silk Road Sustainable Development Strategy,” according to Wang Wenbiao, Chairman of the Elion Resources Group. “The Elion Resources Group is committed to taking the lead to implement the Greening Silk Road Partnership in China’s Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Hebei Province, and other developing countries. And through the joint partnership with UNCCD and many others, we hope that our successes will be shared and scaled up at regional and global levels to effectively tackle land degradation and climate change.”