ULAN BATOR, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is underway in Ulan Bator, with China offering robust backing for the landmark summit. Beyond the conference halls, China has long rolled out comprehensive support to help neighboring Mongolia tackle its lingering desertification threat.
More than 70 percent of Mongolia's territory reportedly suffers desertification, concentrated most severely in its southern Gobi region. Spring cyclones regularly churn up massive dust clouds that drift over Mongolia and beyond, creating a shared cross-border environmental hazard.
Since signing the UNCCD in 1994, China has evolved from a recipient of international green aid into a major global provider of land restoration expertise, becoming the world's first country to reverse land degradation and shrink its desert footprint. Neighboring Mongolia stands as China's key regional partner in this work.
Mongolia faces a critical shortage of sapling nurseries, a bottleneck China has moved to resolve. Drawing on its geographic proximity and decades of seedling cultivation know-how, China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has become Mongolia's primary sapling supplier. By early June this year, the autonomous region had shipped over 11.7 million saplings across the border.
Beyond sapling exports, Inner Mongolian specialists help Mongolia build ecological restoration zones, roll out mature afforestation models, and launch joint sandstorm monitoring with shared data and technology, according to Hou Shuxia, director of the collaborative innovation center for China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor research at Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics.
The renowned Kubuqi Model, developed in Inner Mongolia and combining effective government policies, private investment, market-oriented engagement by farmers and herdsmen, and advanced technologies, sits at the heart of China's shared toolkit. Local teams have also built deep experience navigating cultural, linguistic and technical hurdles in cross-border ecological projects.
Meteorological collaboration forms another core pillar of bilateral action. On April 1 this year, the meteorological authorities of the two countries held their first joint video briefing to assess spring dust risks, vegetation growth, and seasonal climate trends, building on the 2024 agreements on early warning systems. At the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China donated its AI-powered meteorological warning system MAZU to Mongolia.
The bilateral ecological cooperation gained a formal anchor in September 2023, when the China-Mongolia Desertification Prevention and Control Cooperation Center was inaugurated. Run by Beijing Forestry University, the facility will oversee a network of demonstration bases and environmental monitoring stations for joint research and restoration projects.
Chinese enterprises operating in Mongolia also contribute to on-the-ground restoration work. Shini Shini Co., Ltd., a mining company run by China Railway Resources Group in Dornod Province, launched Mongolia's first waste-free underground backfilling mining system in 2022.
Aligned with Mongolia's 2021 initiative to plant 1 billion trees by 2030, the mine has carried out extensive post-mining reclamation. By the end of 2025, crews had planted more than 12,000 trees, finished over 30 hectares of technical reclamation and more than 25 hectares of ecological restoration, with full grass coverage across all tailings dams.
"We firmly believe mines can serve as models of green development," said Gong Mingshan, executive director of Shini Shini Co., Ltd.
"We aim to build this mine into a flagship example of China-Mongolia anti-desertification collaboration. We will ramp up environmental investment, advance digital ecological monitoring and low-carbon mining technology, and deepen experience exchanges with Mongolian counterparts," Gong said. ■