Desertification control seminar held in NW China

YINCHUAN - A seminar on combating desertification opened in the city of Yinchuan, capital of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

Officials, experts and scholars from the United Nations and 15 countries including China, Pakistan and Zimbabwe attended the seminar that opened on last Thursday.

Attendees will take lessons, go on field trips and discuss desertification control, related technological applications as well as international cooperation and innovation during the 14-day seminar co-hosted by the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the regions' forestry and grassland bureau.

China has made great efforts in combating desertification. Official statistics showed that the area of desertified land in China shrinks by an annual average of 2,424 square kilometers, compared to an expansion of 10,400 square km at the end of the last century.

"China has made laws, carried out government projects on desertification control and combined desertification control with poverty alleviation," said Hu Peixing, deputy director of the desertification combat division at the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. "We have gained much experience and are willing to share the experience and join hands with other countries to combat desertification."

A desertification control knowledge management center was also established last Thursday at the opening ceremony, which aims to share China's wisdom and Ningxia's experience on combating desertification to other countries in the world.

"The situation here in Ningxia and that in South Africa have things in common. I hope to bring China's desertification control technologies back, develop green industries to improve employment rate and share South Africa's experience here as well," said James Gambiza, a professor from Rhodes University in South Africa.