RIYADH – Gazing at the goji berries in his hands, Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification UNCCD, was amazed by the taste and economic value of the little red berries grown in China’s northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. During his Friday tour to the China Pavilion at the 16th Conference of the Parties COP16 to the UNCCD held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thiaw was impressed by China’s decades-long efforts in desertification control.

Themed “Cross-Century Green Great Wall, China’s Restoration in Action,” the exhibition showcases China’s battle against desertification, particularly through the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, a major national initiative aimed at reversing desertification. The new technologies China has applied in its desertification control also took the spotlight. From tree-planting robots to satellite remote sensing systems, Thiaw listened attentively as the exhibition staff introduced the technologies displayed at the pavilion. His eyes were also drawn to the photovoltaic panels in a poster, which were widely used in the city of Ordos, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to reduce carbon emissions and boost resilience against drought.

Continuing his stroll through the pavilion, he was captivated by a display about the construction of China’s “green Great Wall,” which encapsulates China’s efforts to prevent sandstorms, conserve water and soil, and safeguard agriculture in its drought and desert area. China’s “green Great Wall” is “extraordinary,” showing “how much traditional knowledge is combined with new technologies, how much long-term vision is combined with the need to have short-term solutions, how much business is associated with ecology, to create the positive movement that is needed to actually bring the land back to health,” he remarked. During the conference, delegates are expected to make decisions on collective actions aimed at accelerating land restoration, improving resilience against droughts and sandstorms, restoring soil health, and scaling up nature-positive food production, with a focus on 2030 and beyond.  (Xinhua)