(Photo/Xinhua)

The desertified and sandified areas in China have both shrunk for three consecutive monitoring periods. Meanwhile, China planted 106 million mu (about 7.07 hectares) of forest in 2019, exceeding the annual target.

The total area of stony desertified land in karst areas has been reduced by 386,000 hectares annually, with an average annual reduction rate of 3.45 percent.

Since 2012, more than 14 million hectares of desertified land have been treated, and 1.7 million hectares have been closed and protected.

Through the construction of key projects and comprehensive prevention and control measures, in recent years, the annual occurrence of sand and dust storm weather in northern China has not exceeded 10, whose frequency and intensity are lower than the average of the same period in the last 20 years.

Furthermore, characteristic industries focusing on wood, fodder, traditional Chinese medicine, economic forest fruits and desert tourism have been formed, helping local people to fight against poverty.

According to incomplete statistics, over the past three years, poverty has been reduced for more than 10 million people in 12 sand-belt provinces in northern China.