From Taklimakan to Sahara, China, Africa in Concert to Combat Drought, Desertification

A Chinese expert elaborates the installing process of an updated sand-fixing grid to participants attending a desertification control training workshop at a sand prevention demonstration area in Taklimakan Desert, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, June 12, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

URUMQI/NAIROBI -- Nestled in a shelterbelt bordering the Taklimakan Desert in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, a few mulberry trees had just yielded their fruits. Finding solace in the sprawling greenery, Zinabu Bora, an Ethiopian ecology scholar, took a moment to pluck some mulberries and savored their juice with great relish.

Saturday marks the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, an occasion when Bora, together with over 30 other scholars and officials from Africa and Central Asia, was attending a desertification control training workshop held on June 9-20 by the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

From Korla to Hotan through the desert from north to south, the crew delved into various desertification control methods, seeking inspiration and exploring the feasibility of applying them at home.

China's solution

Having witnessed severe famines caused by ecological crises in childhood, Bora developed a determination to work in desertification control from an early age. Before attending this workshop, he had finished his PhD in rangeland management and ecology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Along the Tarim Desert Highway, there are 109 well stations to pump water for the shelterbelt. During the visit to the 12th station, Bora and his friend Endrias Geta, state minister of the Ethiopian Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands, stood for quite a while beside the photovoltaic panels which provide electric power for the station.

Geta expressed interest in the photovoltaic drip irrigation facility as it emits no carbon and allows for flexible adjustment of soil moisture. Combined with water management systems, it could utilize rainfall from the wet season for irrigation in the dry season. "That's what we urgently need," the minister said.

Desertification is becoming increasingly problematic in Ethiopia, Tewodros Aboye, a suburban resident in the capital Addis Ababa, told Xinhua.

Ethiopia boasts a large cattle population, and the degrading of grassland "is greatly affecting the livestock population" as they are more and more poorly fed, Aboye said.

"In Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, environmental protection is a priority for all our development," Geta noted, elaborating on the Green Legacy Initiative of Ethiopia which brings about planting billions of tree seedlings in the country for multiple purposes.

"China has a lot of experience in restoring degraded areas and making them productive, so we need to strengthen our long-term relationship with China in terms of transferring knowledge, technologies, and also in capacity building," he said.

Most participants of the workshop came from African and Central Asian areas greatly affected by desertification and drought. Among them was Baasanbat Oyundari, a 22-year-old Mongolian researcher in ecology. Concerned about the social-economic consequences of desertification, she saw this trip as a good start for her research career.

"Everything starts from the environmental problems I faced as a child and that's why I'm in this field," she said. According to the Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Tourism, some 77 percent of the country's territory is affected by desertification and land degradation.

Old friends

Abdul Hamid Bala, ecology and forestry director at the environment ministry of north Nigeria's Kano state, first came to China 12 years ago. During a one-month workshop held by the Gansu Desert Control Research Institute, he learned about mechanical methods, such as the straw checkerboard, for controlling deserts.

"After I learned it, I taught around 70 students the technology, and they brought it to different places in my country," said the man in his fifties.

The Nigerian researcher came to China again. At the demonstration point of the sand-fixing checkerboard, Bala tied a grid on his own using a type of degradable material -- cassava. "This is why I came here, to increase my knowledge."

The climate in Kano is dry, and the land is fragile, said Umar Danladi Dahiru, director of the non-governmental organization African Desertification Control Initiative in Nigeria. "Also, population growth and increasing livelihood needs are some of the human factors that aggravate the desertification process," he said.

On June 17, 2011, Xu Xinwen, a Chinese scientist in desert ecology and research fellow with XIEG, planted a jatropha seedling together with Dahiru and other environmentalists at the Audu Bako College of Agriculture, Danbatta, Kano state. That year, Dahiru met Xu for the first time.

On Xu's sofa at home, there is a leather patchwork cushion with his name embroidered on it, and it was a gift from Dahiru during Xu's visit to Nigeria in 2018. "We always keep in touch," Dahiru told Xinhua.

Having been working in harsh desert regions in China for decades, Xu never hesitates to communicate with his African fellows. "Our foreign friends face similar challenges as we do," he said. "I understand that hardship and would like to share with them the experience we have gained in China."

For many years, Chinese and African scientists have worked in concert to combat drought and desertification.

With support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the ADCI started to promote indigenous economic tree plantations. In the experimental site sitting near the Gwarmai village in Kano state, researchers have selected several tree species for trial planting.

Dahiru said the project is a good start in building a "green wall" in Kano and other Nigerian states bordering the Sahara Desert.

"China and Africa have come up with joint programs on environmental studies and China is charting the way forward," said Gerrishon K. Ikiara, a Nairobi-based specialist on development, policy and international economics.

Shared homeland

With an overarching aim of planting a wall of trees across Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, the African Union launched the Great Green Wall initiative in 2007 to restore Africa's degraded lands.

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the initiative will be the largest living structure on the planet once realized, covering 8,000 km of land stretching across the entire width of the continent from Senegal in West Africa to Djibouti in the east.

The "green Great Wall" in northern China has achieved tangible results and serves as a valuable reference for African countries, said Marcelin Sanou, chief of the planning, monitoring-evaluation and information management at the Pan-African Agency for the Great Green Wall.

Through collaboration, China and Africa can share experiences, support each other, and work towards achieving sustainable development goals, he said.

"We need joint efforts for facilitating scientific understanding, sharing knowledge and technology, and raising the capacity of action," said Jia Xiaoxia, program officer at the UNCCD, at the third Taklimakan Desert Forum held on June 10-12 in Korla, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

In an interview with Xinhua, Jia underlined that the Great Green Wall is not just a "wall." It is primarily about reviving agricultural development in the region affected by drought and desertification, she said. "Restoring the overall functions of the ecosystem is crucial for agricultural development and local food security."

"When we address desertification issues, we should also think about sustainable development goals which are really a network of targets that we should address altogether," said Zhang Linxiu, director of UN Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP).

Climate change, ecosystem degradation, and pollution are not independent crises, she said, adding that desertification control is an issue not only for the two regions but also with global significance. "Everything is connected."

Echoing her remarks, Addis Ababa resident Aboye said, "I wish the next generation inherits an evergreen ecosystem with improved climate conditions."