Government data shows that as of the end of 2014, 2.61 million square kilometers or 27 percent of China’s land area was desert. The encroaching desert has incurred economic losses of over 64 billion yuan (US$9.2b) and some 400 million people were negatively impacted. Over the past 40 years, China has launched 16 major measures to combat desertification such as returning farmland to forests. Besides the government, tech companies including Alibaba also took initiatives to deal with desertification and restore degraded land. According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the desert area in the country decreased from 1999 to 2014. To date, China has contributed to 25 percent of the increase in the planet’s green forested area, providing valuable experience to other countries to continue their anti-desertification drives.
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