32 BEIJING REVIEW AUGUST 1, 2019 http://www.bjreview.comNATION
X
u Xinwen, a 56-year-old researcher, is a
warrior, but not in the conventional sense.
For 21 years, he has been battling against
a very different enemy—sand—in the desert in
northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region, which is home to the largest arid land in
the country.
A researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of
Ecology and Geography (XIEG) under the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xu has dedi-
cated much of his life to building China’s
Great Green Wall, a project initiated in 1978
aimed at planting a shelter belt from north-
west to northeast China in areas vulnerable
to sand hazards and soil loss. With an area
of 4 million square km, the project has
involved hundreds of millions of people in
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Having garnered rich experience, Xu is
now part of a team taking part in a similar
project on the other side of the world, with
a similar name: the Great Green Wall of
Africa.
In 2007, under the leadership of the
African Union, 11 African countries, in-
cluding Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea and
Ethiopia, joined the Great Green Wall initia-
tive. It is described as “an epic ambition
to grow a 7,600-km natural wonder of the
world across the entire width of Africa,” ac-
cording to the program’s official website.
Currently, more than 20 African countries
have joined the project.
Xu became involved in the initiative
when the China-Africa Joint Research
Center was set up in 2013. As a participant,
XIEG established an office with organiza-
tions in Mauritania, one of the African
Great Green Wall participating countries,
to conduct research on the prevention of
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Africa Great Green Wall Research Center
to provide technological support for the
program.
“We are in a good position to provide
support to Africa with our technologyXu believes there is ample room for this
cooperation. “Based on our investigations
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control is needed there, especially for the
construction of the Great Green Wall,” he
explained.
XIEG is now busy with a new national
research program, started in 2018, to as-
sist green cooperation with Africa. The
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gies suitable for the building of the African
Great Green Wall. It focuses on diagnosing
key technical problems with the building
of the wall and assessing the suitability of
China’s technology, materials and products
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Chinese companies in the ecological in-
dustry may provide a solution. With their
success in developing the desert economy
in China, they are exploring possibilities to
bring ecological projects to Africa.
In October 2018, the ELION Group,
an ecological company in Inner Mongolia,
another major area subject to severe
desertification in China, signed a memo-
randum of understanding (MoU) with the
Council of the Oriental Region of Morocco
in Oujda to address desertification in that
region. They were considering forest res-
toration and clean energy development as
likely areas of cooperation, according to
ELION President Wang Wenbiao.
In the same month, ELION signed an-
other MoU with Nigeria’s southern province
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control, agriculture and development of
new energy resources.
These cooperation projects followed
the conclusion of the Beijing Summit of the
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held a
month earlier, where China proposed green
development, including desertification
control, as part of its eight major initiatives
to expand cooperation with Africa.and experience gained in Xinjiang,” Xu
told Beijing Review, adding that the simi-
larities in the causes of desertification in
Xinjiang and Africa make it possible to ap-
ply Chinese expertise in the region.Technological support
XIEG was established in 1998, originat-
ing from two institutes for desert studies
and geology that were established in the
1960s. Since then, it has accumulated vast
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tion control and development of ecological
industries.
Its technology was first introduced
in Africa in 2009. Invited by the Libyan
Government, XIEG provided a comprehen-
sive solution for controlling typical sand
hazards along a desert road in Murzuq in
southwest Libya. This example became
a landmark for the later introduction of
Chinese desertification control technolo-
gies in Africa.
According to XIEG, after the launch of
China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2013,
more intensive cooperation was carried out
with African Great Green Wall countries.
In August 2017, XIEG provided a 14-
day training course for some 20 people
from these countries. Chinese techniques
in Xinjiang’s anti-desertification project
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trainees a deeper understanding of the so-
lutions available. A progress report detailing
the specific needs of the various African
countries along the Great Green Wall was
also compiled.
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a provider of technological support for
the Great Green Wall initiative by signing
agreements with related countries at the
13th Session of the Conference of the
Parties to the United Nations Convention
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north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region.China and African countries cooperate to curb desertification By Hu Fan
Bringing Back Vegetation