Story
China/Korea
Out of Environmental Hazards Livelihoods Are Restored, Friendships Created
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t is almost a ritual. Around March of every year, dust storms envelop the city of Beijing. Cities located in the dust path, from China to the Republic of Korea and Japan and as far away as the United States are not spared. A big part of the problem is the expanding Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia, China, which has caused residents to leave their homes. But the construction of the Great Green Wall in the region is halting desertification and preventing sand dune encroachment. The Great Green Wall is being built through collaboration between the Korean NGO Future Forest and the All China Youth Federation. It is 16 kilometers long and about 1 kilometer wide. As of August 2013, more than 6.62 million trees covering an area of 2,400 hectares have been planted. The “wall” serves as a windbreak, slowing the advance of the yellow sand dunes toward the farms and ranches of the Yellow River Basin. The results are even visible by satellite. The most important lesson from the project is that a combination of treeplanting and sand fixation methods can slow sand migration and greatly enhance soils natural health and yield capacity. The wall has many benefits for residents and the ecosystem. Local living conditions have improved, plants and animals have returned, and the amount of soil sediment washed into the Yellow River is decreasing.
Much of the work has been achieved by Korean and Chinese students, who have gained valuable experience along the way and remain ambitious. Recently, the team launched a campaign to plant a billion trees in the region. Squabbles and disagreements are common in international efforts to solve transboundary environmental problems. But cooperation around the Great Green Wall has come to symbolize friendship between the people of Korea and China, which has earned the wall the nickname, “Korea—China Friendship Great Green Wall.” http://www.futureforest.org
L and for Life . FORESTS
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