Sino-Korean Afforestation Program Beautifies Inner Mongolia Desert

A three-year afforestation program jointly initiated by China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) has led to the creation of a "green belt" along the edge of the Ulan Buh desert in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The region's forestry bureau said Wednesday that a desert control program funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has resulted in the planting of 3.6 million trees on 866 hectares of land along the border of the Ulan Buh desert.

The regional government and the KOICA have each spent US$1 million on the program over the last three years. Local authorities have imposed a grazing ban and built iron fences to protect the afforested area.

The Ulan Buh desert covers 1 million hectares of land in Inner Mongolia. Each year, 60 million metric tons of sand from the desert ends up in the Yellow River, China's second-largest river.