The use of sand barriers helps transform hundreds of acres of northern China's Kubuqi Desert into a green landscape. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

Thanks to strenuous efforts over the past three decades, China's Kubuqi Desert, once known as a "death zone," has become an oasis and a model for treating land desertification.

The Kubuqi Desert, the seventh-largest desert in China, covers 13,900 square kilometers.

Over the past 30 years, more than 6,000 sq km of desert in Kubuqi Desert has been turned green due to the collective efforts of local governments, enterprises and other organizations. 

Led by a local company, Elion Resources Group, the greening campaign has generated more than 500 billion yuan ($70.2 billion) in wealth and provided about 1 million jobs to locals.

The campaign’s success has resulted in the "Kubuqi Model" for desertification control, which features balanced development of the economy, environment and people’s livelihoods. 

The Kubuqi Model has drawn the attention of the international community.

For more than 10 years, under the promotion of the United Nations Environment Program and the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, over 2,000 politicians, experts, scholars, entrepreneurs and environmentalists from more than 40 countries have visited Kubuqi to learn about the area’s desert control experience and technology.

In September 2013, at the 11th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Kubuqi International Desert Forum was included in the conference resolutions as an important platform to achieve the strategic objectives of the global convention to combat desertification.

China's core desertification control technology has also gone abroad and is being tested in Nigeria, Morocco, Iran and other countries.