22 January 2017

Mr. Zhang Yongli, Deputy Administrator of the State Forestry Administration of China

Dear friends of the press, 

Good morning. Now, I would like to take this opportunity to brief you on China's efforts on combating desertification.

Called as "cancer of the earth", desertification becomes the hot and serious issue for global ecology. In order to address it in a joint manner, in 1994 the General Assembly of the UN adopted the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCCD. As one of the Country Parties of UNCCD, China has been active in implementation of its obligations as defined by the convention and adopted a series of moves to prevent and control desertification in a solid and sound way, massive outcomes have been achieved. China has won world recognition for it, the 17th UN Sustainable Development Commission meeting pointed out that China plays a leadership role in desertification prevention and control.

We have been following the principle of "Conservation first, science-based treatment and appropriate utilization" and committed to "six integrations", namely the integration of government leadership and public participation, the integration of manpower control and natural rehabilitation, legal regulation and policy incentives, breakthrough on key issues and scale-up in broader perspectives, insist in science-based treatment and hard working, and improving both ecological condition and people's livelihood. Chinese government promulgated a series of policy documents including Law on the Prevention and Control of Desertification, The Decisions by the State Council on Further Strengthening the Work to Prevent and Control Desertification and National Plan on the Prevention and Control of Desertification. China practiced accountability system for provincial government pertaining to desertification control targets and conducted a series of key ecological construction projects such as natural forest protection, control of sandstorm source for Beijing and Tianjin, shelterbelt forest construction in North, Northeast and Northwest China, conversion from degraded farmland into forests and from degraded grazing land into grassland and comprehensive treatment for rocky desertification. China has also had pilot work on enclosed protection area for sandified land and national desert park to practice strict protection and integrated governance of key and ecological fragile areas. As a result of implementing key ecological construction projects and mass-scale treatment, China has effectively curbed the expanding trend of desertification with continuous reduction of desertified land area, as well as enhanced ecological functions of desert. Monitoring results show that compared with 2009, in 2014 the area of desertified and sandified land presented "dual reduction" momentum with a reduction of 12,120 and 9,902 square kilometers respectively and the severity of the two phenomena both turning from being very severe to light. The vegetation coverage and the weather conditions in sandified areas are both turning into a better situation, with vegetation coverage increased by 0.7% in average and the annual sandstorm hitting frequency reduced by 20.3% compared with last monitoring period.

After concerted efforts, China has developed a road of desertification prevention and control with Chinese characteristics, as full set of systems on laws and regulations, policies, planning, evaluation, project construction, scientific research and technology promotion, monitoring and early warning, UNCCD implementation and international cooperation have been established. China's efforts in this area have not only set examples for building ecological civilization and a beautiful China, and realizing the dream of rejuvenating the nation itself, it also contributed China's "medicine" to treat the "cancer of earth" (desertification), China's "program" and "model" for the global goal of "to achieve land degradation neutral world by 2030", and China's "wisdom" and "experience" for advancing the sustainable development of whole human being.

Currently, the world is faced with severe challenges of desertification expansion. Therefore, it is an arduous task to hit the goal of "strive to achieve a land degradation neutral world by 2030" from The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Meanwhile, China is still one of the countries heavily affected by desertification and sandification, China has 8 major deserts and 4 major sandified areas. Across China, land desertification area is 2.61 million square kilometers, and sandified land 1.72 million square kilometers accounting for nearly 1/5 of national territory. In some areas, land sandification is still expanding, and another 310,000 square kilometers are of apparent trend of being sandification. Among all the sandified lands, about 500,000 square kilometers are well conditioned to be treated; therefore, the task to prevent and control desertification and sandification is huge.

Chinese government is resolute and proactive in addressing the severe challenge and task of fighting against desertification, to timely conduct research and seek solutions in order to cope with new challenges and difficulties and strive to make work deeper and finer for greater achievement; in the meanwhile China is active in promoting international cooperation and implementation of international conventions, sharing China's story and experiences worldwide. Taking this opportunity, here I declare that the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will take place in early to mid of September this year in Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Co-organized by State Forestry Administration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and People's government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the conference will be attended by approximately 1,400 official delegates from 195 convention Parties to discuss global issues and seek solutions to desertification on the world.

The theme of COP 13 is "Combat Desertification hands in hands, jointly strive for the human wellbeing". The main task of this COP session is referring to UN goal of "strive to achieve a land degradation neutral world by 2030", to discuss a series of key policy issues and develop the UNCCD Future Strategy Framework, Parities will present their voluntary land degradation neutral targets and action plans.

To host UNCCD COP 13 showcases China's initiative in honoring its responsibility and obligations in combating desertification and the vision of China in promoting global efforts. Chinese government pays great attention to host this conference. The State Council established the organizing committee with Vice Premier Wang Yang as the Director. It held the first meeting on January 18th, 2017. According to international practice and work plan for preparation, COP 13 contains High level session, Plenary session, the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC) and The Committee on Science and Technology (CST), there will also be various side events, exhibitions, field visits and memorial forest plantation. 

Now, my colleagues and I are happy to answer your questions about combating desertification of China and preparation of UNCCD COP13.