China's Inner Mongolia strives to combat desertification, improve ecological environment (6)

Due to excessive herding and exploitation of mineral resources, the ecological environment of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was, at one point severely damaged and faced a serious soil erosion problem.

Since the end of 2012, Inner Mongolia has stuck to the path of green development, effectively strengthened the protection and restoration of forest and grassland and promoted desertification prevention and control measures, laying an environmental foundation for economic and social development.

In 2019, the forest coverage rate in Inner Mongolia increased to 22.1 percent and the comprehensive vegetation coverage of grassland reached 44 percent.

The region has completed forestry ecological construction on more than 12 million mu (8,000 square kilometers) of land annually, ranking first in China, and dealt with the problem of soil erosion on an average of over 9 million mu of land a year.

It has also encouraged citizens to voluntarily plant trees and mobilized enterprises to participate in preventing and controlling desertification.