When visiting Hunshandake Sandy Land on May 12, 2000, former Premier Zhu Rongji of the State Council issued important directives that “it is extremely urgent to carry out sand control and desertification prevention, and it is imperative to build green barriers.” The government has initiated the Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm-Control Project urgently. The people of Duolun county have started on a long journey of sand control.

Through unremitting efforts for dozens of years, the desertification condition has been controlled effectively in Duolun county, where a northern Beijing natural barrier has been preliminarily built. Thanks to its outstanding achievements in eco-construction, Duolun county has won many national awards for tree planting and reconverting farmland into grassland. 　

The grassland recovers its beautiful look

In September, the grassland entered a stage of mowing grass. According to one herdsman: “The grass has been growing well in recent years, especially this year. The grassland has become green in early May.”

In 2001, Xilin Gol League proposed an enclosing and transfer strategy, guiding the areas with grassland degradation and desertification to implement the strategy of “forbidding pasturing and transferring farmers and herdsmen.” It promoted the transformation of animal husbandry from a quantity expansion model to quality-benefit model through reducing the number of herdsmen and livestock to relieve the grassland burden and change the operation model of animal husbandry. Finally the farmers and herdsmen selected the transformation after further consideration.

In 2003, Xilin Gol League held the Blue Flag conference, which was a milestone in its development history. At this conference, Xilin Gol League proposed a new type of industrialization, solemnly promised to give priority to environmental protection in the process of industrialization, and conducted economic restructuring to revitalize Xilin Gol.

Currently, the ecological management area in the entire league amounts to 34.9 million mu, including 9.28 million mu for forestry ecological development. The current afforestation area has exceeded the total area of the previous 50 years. The forest coverage rate has doubled, and the area of shifting and semi-shifting sandy land has decreased by 6.8 million mu.

Therefore, the ecological environment of the league has improved greatly. In the whole league, a total of 160,000 people in the rural pasturing area were transferred. The total livestock decreased by 30 percent, and the grazing capacity of the western desert and semi-desert grassland decreased by nearly 50 percent. The advantage in green and organic animal products is gradually turning into economic profit, and the income of farmers and herdsmen has doubled. The wage of farmers and herdsmen accounts for 40.7 percent of their total income.