BEIJING — China has completed a 46-year effort to surround its largest desert with trees, aiming to combat desertification and reduce sandstorms that frequently affect the country during spring, according to state media reports on Friday (Nov 29).

The "green belt," spanning around 3,000 kilometers around the Taklamakan Desert, was finished on Thursday in Xinjiang’s northwestern region. Workers planted the final 100 meters of trees on the desert’s southern edge, as reported by the Communist Party’s People's Daily.

This tree-planting initiative began in 1978 with the launch of China's "Three-North Shelterbelt" project, commonly referred to as the Great Green Wall. Since then, more than 30 million hectares (116,000 square miles) of trees have been planted.

The effort in the arid northwest has contributed to increasing China’s total forest cover to over 25% by the end of last year, up from around 10% in 1949. In Xinjiang, forest cover alone has risen from 1% to 5% over the past 40 years, the People's Daily reported.

The shelterbelt project has involved decades of trial and error to identify the most resilient tree and plant species. While critics argue that survival rates have often been low and the project hasn’t significantly reduced sandstorms—especially those reaching Beijing—officials remain committed to continuing efforts to combat desertification.

Zhu Lidong, a forestry official in Xinjiang, stated in a press briefing on Monday that tree planting along the Taklamakan's edge would continue to control desert spread. Additionally, a team of Chinese molecular biologists, led by Li Jieping, is working on developing a 'super-potato' resistant to higher temperatures due to climate concerns.

The project also aims to restore poplar forests along the northern edge of the desert by diverting flood waters, while officials plan new forest networks to protect farmlands and orchards on the desert’s western edge. Despite these extensive efforts, official data from the forestry bureau reveals that 26.8% of China’s land remains "desertified," a slight improvement from 27.2% a decade ago.

Disclaimer: This image is taken from Reuters