China's ‘Great Green Wall’ brings hope but also hardship

INNER Mongolian herder Dorj looked bitterly at the vast grasslands where his flock once grazed freely, before the practice was banned as part of a massive Chinese state greening project.

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Restrictions on traditional grazing are a key part of China's “Great Green Wall” campaign, a decades-old anti-desertification project credited with “greening” over 90 million hectares.

The campaign initially aimed to contain the expansion of deserts in the arid north caused by intensive farming, grazing, mining and climate change.

But in some places the goal has now evolved into creating new arable land, and the project combines large-scale tree planting with sowing drought-resistant creepers, and even installing vast solar arrays to limit wind and shade plants.

China has lately touted the project at international meetings, and President Xi Jinping last week pledged to increase forest cover to help meet climate goals.

Planting the equivalent of 840 000 football pitches around Inner Mongolia’s Kubuqi desert has created tens of thousands of jobs and helped alleviate poverty, a 2015 UN study found.

But for some ethnic Mongolians, who make up 17% of the autonomous region's population, the campaign has eroded traditional farming practices and culture.