UN official hails China's grassroots, national sand-control efforts

ULAN BATOR, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- At the ongoing 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Andrea Meza Murillo, deputy executive secretary of UNCCD, spoke highly of China's land restoration feats and touching individual desertification-control stories during a thematic side event.

"Every time I come to the China Pavilion or I go to visit China, like I did when I went to the Kubuqi Desert, I'm very impressed by what China has achieved in terms of land degradation neutrality, in terms of combating desertification, and in terms of soil health," Meza Murillo said at the event held on Monday evening.

She highlighted bold leadership, long-term planning and long-term vision as major drivers behind China's progress, and noted that one major lesson drawn from China's restoration work lies in combining indigenous traditional knowledge with modern technologies to rehabilitate land once thought beyond repair.

Meza Murillo pointed to the decades-long journey of China's Great Green Wall, or the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, as an example reflecting the above values.

"I think a lot of the values are rooted in China's thousands-of-years-old civilization. They know that restoration is a play of long-term vision. I think that we all need to understand these, get inspired by these and try to learn," she said.

During the side event, Meza Murillo made special reference to the "very inspiring story" of Yin Yuzhen, a pioneering Chinese grassroots tree-planter.

Yin, a national model worker, has spent four decades planting trees across northern China's Maowusu Sandy Land, the country's fourth-largest sandy area. Her life-changing cross-border friendship dates back to 1999. That year, retired U.S. teacher Ronald Sakolsky watched a TV report covering Yin's arduous sand-control work while teaching in China. Deeply moved, he raised 5,000 U.S. dollars to fund her afforestation work.

The donation enabled Yin to purchase and plant more than 50,000 saplings. Those saplings have since grown into a sprawling forest, turning barren dunes into thriving green space. Earlier this year, Yin reconnected online with her long-lost American friend, who traveled to China on Sunday to revisit the forest he helped create and meet Yin in person.

"It's amazing to see how she connected as well with international supporters and what she has achieved in this transformation following a vision and dream," Meza Murillo said.

The UN official also recalled her field observations from the Kubuqi Desert a few years ago.

"I was amazed by seeing this combination of the energy transition combating desertification in a way where China is also generating food in this same area," she said.

She stressed that all nations, particularly developing countries, pursue prosperity, jobs and social welfare, yet development must stay within planetary boundaries. Healthy land, soil and water underpin human survival, and nature can regenerate if given the chance.

Expressing firm belief in South-South cooperation, she observed that many practical solutions for global ecological challenges will emerge from the Global South.

During the side event, China called for continued development of desertification-control cooperation platforms covering China-Arab, China-Mongolia and China-Central Asia, and proposed aligning cooperation with the practical needs of Belt and Road partner countries on desertification prevention and control.

"We hope that a lot of these different centers can continue operating, becoming bigger, connecting countries, friends, connecting communities, and showing that we can achieve prosperity while protecting our land, soil, food and water," she said.