Publication

The Inter Press Service shares a story from Inner Mongolia China of how the community is fighting severe sandification and mobile deserts. As the sand progressively degrades the farmland, growing poverty creates a vicious cycle. A four-year project was worked out to reclaim 465 hectares of wasted farmland with the villagers providing the labor, and the local forest department the technical support. Various conversion methods were considered, including covering the shifting sands with a plastic net; chemical treatment to bind the surface sand; and containing sand mobility by regular interval fencing with shrubs, stone and straw. A combination of mechanical and biological measures was chosen by the community to re-vegetate and reforest its land