China’s ‘Great Green Wall’ tames desert growth, but fight not over
China’s Three-North Protective Forest Program has reduced desertified land, but restored areas still need long-term protection.
- China launched the Three-North Protective Forest Program in 1978 to curb desert expansion in northern China.
- Workers place forearm-length sticks into shifting sand in an interlocking grid to slow dune movement and help saplings establish.
- State media data cited in the note says desertified land in northern China peaked in 2000 and has declined by about 1,000 square kilometres each year since then.
- The note says forest cover in the program area rose from about 5% in 1978 to 14% by 2022.
What happened
China’s decades-long Three-North Protective Forest Program, also called the "Green Great Wall", continues to reduce desertification in northern China. The note highlights the use of straw checkerboards, a sand-stabilisation method in which workers place forearm-length sticks into shifting sand in an interlocking grid and plant saplings in the centre of each square.
The method is designed to slow dune movement caused by wind and to help vegetation establish with irrigation support.
UPSC can frame this topic around desertification, afforestation, and the policy trade-off between ecological restoration and sustained local development. A good answer can link the Three-North Protective Forest Program to land degradation control, political commitment, irrigation dependence, overgrazing, and long-term maintenance of restored ecosystems.
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