China completes 3,000-km green belt around its biggest desert, state media says

[Zorro]

China has finished a 46-year campaign to encircle its largest desert with trees, part of national efforts to end desertification and curb the sandstorms that plague parts of the country during the spring, state media reported on Friday.

A "green belt" of about 3,000 km (2,000 miles) around the Taklamakan was completed on Thursday in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, after workers planted the final 100 metres of trees on the desert's southern edge, the Communist Party-run People's Daily said.

Efforts to enclose the desert with trees began in 1978 with the launch of China's "Three-North Shelterbelt" project, colloquially known as the Great Green Wall. More than 30 million hectares (116,000 square miles) of trees have been planted.

Tree planting in the arid northwest has helped bring China's total forest coverage above 25% by the end of last year, up from around 10% in 1949. Forest coverage in Xinjiang alone has risen from 1% to 5% in the last 40 years, the People's Daily said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-completes-3-000-km-112549261.html

[LonePirate]

1. This seems like a great project. I have no idea how the trees are kept alive unless they are irrigated somehow.

Still, this is an impressive feat. I wonder if something like that could be done in the western US.

[soandso]

3. They're planting trees and plants for an arid climate

[eShirl]

2. There's a Great Green Wall project in Africa, too