Chinese company commits to combating land degradation, climate change

Elion Foundation, a leading Chinese company specialized in land remediation and ecological rehabilitation, has committed to plant a total of 1.3 billion trees along the Silk Road in 10 years to combat land degradation and climate change when it formed partnership with UNCCD on Monday at the 6th World Park Congress held in Australia.

UNCCD, or the UN Convention of Combating Desertification, is the global lead platform to address desertification and land degradation. The Elion Resources Group, which launches the foundation, is home-based in the Kubuqi Desert of Inner Mongolia, north China.

The so-called "Greening Silk Road Partnership" sets eye on mending degraded land and tackling climate change for world peace and security, said Wang Wenbiao, chairman of the Elion Resources Group.

"The effort is aligned with the sustainable development strategy along the Silk Road put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the recently concluded APEC Summit in Beijing," Wang said.

"Through the joint partnership with UNCCD and many others, we hope that our successes will be shared and scaled up at regional and global levels to effectively tackle land degradation and climate change," he said.

Statistics show that a total of 500 million hectares of rehabilitated degraded land could sequester about one third of global greenhouse gas emissions today.

The world today is embattled by 36 million square kilometers of land classified as deserts and desertification, with an expansion rate of 50,000 to 70,000 square kilometers every year.

More than 2 billion people live in those regions. At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012, the UNCCD set a global goal of zero growth of desertification by 2030, as an important element of The Future We Want, the joint statement by all political leaders at the conference.

Monique Barbut, UNCCD executive secretary-general, spoke highly of the efforts, best practices and the business model in combating desertification and land-based climate adaptation in China, especially in Kubuqi.

Kubuqi has set a good role model and business model for the global community to learn from in terms of degraded land rehabilitation and addressing climate change. The model is an innovation that emphasizes harmony and balance between the ecosystems, the economy and the people, she said.

Barbut appreciated China's national strategy of ecological civilization and sustainable development along the Silk Road that is fortressed by ambitious targets and actions.

The efforts to rehabilitate degraded land in China could offer a whole new perspective of the country's efforts in tackling climate change, she added.

In order to successfully expand the efforts, human talents become critical. As part of the joint initiative, the Elion Resources Group and UNCCD have also agreed to join hands to launch the Kubuqi Global Desert Institute.

The institute will be dedicated to offering capacity building and enhancing innovation for human resources in countries along the Silk Road and other developing countries to build up a human talents pool to address global challenges.

The institute calls for support and partnership from public and private sectors to foster the innovation and leadership for a sustainable future.