Alshaa's shelterbelt forest belt along desert edges. [Photo/Alshaa League Integrated Media Center]

Once known for its encroaching deserts and frequent sandstorms, Alshaa League in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region has transformed itself into a model for desertification control through more than four decades of sustained ecological restoration.

Home to the Badain Jaran, Tengger, and Ulan Buh deserts, Alshaa faces some of the harshest environmental conditions in China, with desertified land accounting for over 70 percent of its territory.

Since the 1980s, local authorities have pursued long-term ecological governance through afforestation, grazing bans, ecological migration programs, and large-scale participation in China's Three North Shelterbelt Forest Program.

Alshaa has intensified its efforts in recent years under the new phase of the Three North Shelterbelt Forest Program. The banner has launched seven major desertification-control campaigns, expanded key ecological restoration projects, and promoted innovative photovoltaic-powered sand control initiatives.

A landmark achievement came in 2025 with the completion of a 1,856-kilometer shelterbelt encircling the banner's three major deserts. The project effectively prevented the deserts from expanding and merging, creating a continuous ecological barrier across the vast arid landscape.

A sand stabilization project beneath solar panels in Alshaa League. [Photo/Alshaa League Integrated Media Center]

A road crossing the Tengger Desert in Alshaa League. [Photo/Alshaa League Integrated Media Center]

By the end of 2025, Alshaa had restored more than 100 million mu (6.67 million hectares) of desertified land. Forest coverage increased from 2.96 percent in the early years of the league's establishment to 8.42 percent, while grassland vegetation coverage rose to 23.18 percent.

Advanced technologies, including drone seeding, pelletized seeds, and smart irrigation systems, have significantly increased vegetation survival rates in extremely arid areas.

Ecological recovery has also helped bring wildlife back. In May 2026, infrared cameras in the Helan Mountains recorded a reintroduced snow leopard successfully raising cubs in the wild for the first time.

The milestone marked the world's first successful case of a reintroduced snow leopard completing the full cycle of settlement, breeding, and offspring rearing in its natural habitat, highlighting the region's remarkable ecological recovery.

A saxaul forest planted in the Ulan Buh Desert in Alshaa League. [Photo/Alshaa League Integrated Media Center]

Alshaa has also turned ecological restoration into an engine of economic development. Through its "photovoltaic + desert control + ecological restoration" model, the banner has installed more than 10 million kilowatts of renewable energy capacity and rehabilitated 233,000 mu of desert land through solar power projects. At the same time, industries based on desert plants such as cistanche have flourished, creating jobs and increasing incomes for local residents.

In 2025 alone, more than 10,000 farmers and herders participated in ecological restoration projects, generating an additional 229 million yuan ($33.83 million) in income.