China's Shanxi gains ground in desert control

TAIYUAN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- North China's Shanxi Province, lying at the forefront of China's fight against desertification, carried out desertification prevention and control work on over 386,600 hectares of land in the past five years since 2016, local authorities said.

Located in the south-central edge of the desertification areas in China, Shanxi has nearly 2.2 million hectares of land at risk of desertification, according to the provincial forestry and grassland administration.

In recent years, Shanxi has launched a number of sand control and afforestation projects to improve the ecology.

In 2019, the total forest area of the province is more than 3.63 million hectares, with the forest coverage rate reaching 23.18 percent, a sharp growth from 18.03 percent in 2010.

Shanxi is pushing ahead with its land-greening efforts, aimed to increase its forest coverage rate to 26 percent in 2025, said Zhang Yunlong, director of the provincial forestry and grassland administration.