Nigeria Times

By Zhou Renjie, People’s Daily

China is one of the countries that see the largest desertification areas with the largest population affected, and the most severe wind-sand hazards in the world.

It has made remarkable achievements in its combat against desertification, which comprises millions of touching stories of the Chinese people.

According to the results of the sixth national monitoring survey on desertification released at the end of 2022, China’s desertification and sandification areas had been on a decline for four consecutive monitoring periods, and for the first time, all provinces surveyed reported desertification and sandification reversals. This indicates that China has successfully curbed the expansion of desertification.

Desertification is a major ecological issue facing the world and remains one of the most pressing environmental problems.

For a long time, China has taken the prevention and control of desertification as an important strategic task and adopted a series of effective measures to tackle the problem.

It follows a philosophy that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” carries out holistic conservation and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands and deserts, and strengthens ecological and environmental protection in all fields, regions, and processes.

As a result, the country has achieved remarkable progress in combating desertification and sandification, blazing a new trial of prevention and control with Chinese characteristics. It has realized a historic transformation from “sand forcing humans to retreat” to “trees forcing sand to retreat,” and built a virtuous circle of environmental protection and livelihood improvement.

China, though achieving phased results, is still in a critical period of desertification control from a long-term perspective.

Land desertification is caused by both humans and nature. To restore harmony between men and nature on degraded lands, more science-based guidance shall be provided for desertification control.

To optimize its control plans with dynamic changes in desertification, China launches a nationwide monitoring survey on desertification every five years, and a new annual dynamic monitoring activity in 2021.

So far, the country is working to implement projects including afforestation, desertification control, returning farmland to forest and grass, and tea-oil camellias planting. Last year, relevant departments for the first time reported afforestation plans with specific location information and assigned targeted afforestation tasks.

Desertification control is a long-term and arduous task that calls for efforts of the whole society and the wide participation of the people in control areas.

From Saihanba of Hebei province to Youyu county in Shanxi province, from Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Kekeya in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the people in these places have made ceaseless efforts to fight desertification in the past decades.

Their motivation came from the spirit of resilience and perseverance, and help them find ways to shake off poverty while combating desertification.

According to statistics, 48 million tons of dried and fresh fruits are produced in China’s desert areas each year, accounting for about a quarter of China’s total production with a total annual output value of 120 billion yuan ($16.81 billion). These products have helped approximately 15 million people get rid of poverty. In key areas, over half of farmers’ net income is from the fruit business.

Synergetic promotion of economy and ecology under moderate utilization can mobilize people to widely join desertification control, advance large-scale land greening action, and build a strong ecological barrier.

Thanks to its constant efforts, China has taken the lead in the world to realize zero net land degradation. The country will work to consolidate its achievements, implement conservation measures, offer more scientific and technological support, and mobilize more social participation, so as to write new chapters of desertification control.

By Su Bin, Chen Junyi, People’s Daily

A new batch of data centers, power centers and dispatching centers were recently built at the Guizhou Information Park of China Telecom Cloud Computing in Gui’an New Area, southwest China’s Guizhou Province.

It marked the almost completion of a new phase of a telecommunication data center in the park, which is expected bring at least 70,000 new servers into use.

According to Wu Kaiming, general manager of the operation center of the Guizhou Information Park, the park now comprises eight data centers with a total of 200,000 server racks, and its annual output exceeds 200 million yuan ($28.14 million).

In 2014, the development of the big data industry was elevated to a provincial-level strategy in Guizhou province. Over the past nearly decade, 11 super-large data centers have been established in the province by Huawei, Tencent, China Telecom and other tech and communication giants, and 23 key data centers have been put into use or are under construction.

As one of the eight approved national hub nodes for the development of an integrated computing power network, Guizhou is accelerating the development of a national computing power and algorithm supporting base, turning data into resources and ensuring that data are well stored and utilized.

Wu told People’s Daily that Guizhou, located in the karst mountain region, enjoys a safe and stable geological environment, where the air is always fresh and cool, with summer temperature averaging 24 degrees Celsius. Besides, the province also boasts rich power resources and a relevantly cheaper electricity price, Wu added.

Compared with other regions, the province enjoys advantages in geography, climate and energy, given that data centers are a big consumer of energy, he noted.

Last July, Guizhou province launched a campaign to build stronger clusters of data centers in the Gui’an New Area, said Hu Jianhua, an official with the Big Data Development Administration of Guizhou Province. According to the man, the Gui’an New Area is expected to boast 4 million servers as of 2025 and the total output of data centers in the area will hit 100 billion yuan.

Computing power is productivity in the era of digital economy. Since China launched an “east data, west computing” project, Guizhou province has worked vigorously to improve the operational models and demand-supply matchmaking of computing services.

The province now plays an important part in the post-production rendering of more and more films.

Zhongyun is a big data service company in Guizhou, which moves traditional digital production systems to the cloud via cluster and distributed computing. With its self-developed cloud service platform and computing platform, the company has reduced the time of rendering for big-screen films from over 100 hours to just minutes.

“The company can utilize over 10,000 compute nodes and offer computing services for more than 10,000 enterprises and studios in film and animation production, promoting digital and intelligent transformation of traditional cultural industries,” said an executive of the company.

In May last year, the Guizhou dispatching platform of a national integrated computing power network was officially launched. The platform, matching the supply and demand sides of computing power and enterprises in the data industry, aims at efficient cross-region, cross-industry and cross-platform dispatching of computing power.

Recently, a computing resource zone was opened in the Global Big Data Exchange in Guiyang to nurture the market of data and computing power trading.

The computing resource zone will commercialize and standardize computing power, realize cross-regional dispatching and coordination of computing power, match the supply with the demand of computing power in a targeted manner in east China, promote in-depth integration of computing power and data, and accelerate the exploration of new business forms and models of digital economy, said Ye Yuting, general manager of the Global Big Data Exchange in Guiyang.

Nianhua Data Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the first tech firms in Guizhou dedicated to the development of software technology and services. Over recent years, the company has grasped the opportunity brought about by big data development and launched a data development and governance platform that offers big data services for clients and releases the value of data.

According to vice general manager of the company Wang Gang, the company serves clients in 10 provinces. It is expected to see revenue of 150 million yuan this year and register growth for a sixth consecutive year. Wang said.

The revenue of Guizhou’s software and information technology sector jumped 90.5 percent year-on-year in 2022, 6.5 times of that in 2015, said Hu. The province is home to more than 260 software and information technology firms above the designated size, and a featured digital industry cluster has taken shape, Hu added.

According to him, 84,300 5G base stations have been built in Guizhou, and the province is building itself into a major hub of computing services as a campaign to accelerate the transmission of computing power has kicked off.

By Wu Yong, People’s Daily

Eco-environmental conservation and green development have gained traction in north China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region over recent years.

Grassland is under great natural regeneration thanks to a subsidizing policy aiming at ecological protection, which has been implemented for a dozen years.

Commercial logging is banned. Therefore, its Daxing’anling forest area, the largest state-owned forest area in China, is free from lumbering activities.

The Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia has turned green today and is listed as a model of desert control by the United Nations, and the water coverage of the autonomous region’s Hulun Lake, Ulansu Lake and Daihai Lake remains stable due to comprehensive management.

Green is a defining feature of Inner Mongolia’s development. Ecological conservation is an obligation of the autonomous region that generates infinite power for its development.

As an important source of energy and strategic resources for China, Inner Mongolia is brimming with vitality.

It ranks first in the country in terms of total installed capacities of power and new energy. Making use of its advantages to achieve higher development efficiency, the autonomous region boasts a strong modern energy economy.

Inner Mongolia has made remarkable progress in the development of wind and photovoltaic power generation, transforming from a major producer of fossil energy to one that focuses on new energy.

Last year, it proposed to raise the proportion of the total capacity of renewable energy generation to around 40 percent. Besides, the installed capacity of new energy power is expected to outrun that of thermal power in the autonomous region by 2025.

Inner Mongolia is a national-level production base of agricultural and livestock products. It pursues high-quality development of agriculture and animal husbandry, and develops the two sectors in line with specific conditions.

Over recent years, its consumption of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has turned to constant negative growth, while the region has witnessed a continuous rise in the comprehensive utilization of straws and animal waste, as well as the recycling of mulching film. Inner Mongolia now boasts a higher capability in the supply of green and quality products, including grains, edible oil, coarse cereals, dairy products, beef and mutton.

To work for a beautiful China, Inner Mongolia has designated over half of its land area as ecological protection red-line zones and 70 percent as ecological spaces. It is not a restriction for its development, but mirrors the autonomous region’s firm determination to build a modern industrial system with green features, establish a hub of the new energy industry, and achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. Giving full play to its advantages, Inner Mongolia autonomous region is striving with sound momentum for a comprehensive green transition in production and lifestyles and laying a solid foundation for future development.

By Dou Hanyang, Han Xin, Qiu Haifeng, People’s Daily

In the beautiful field in Pushan village, east China’s Zhejiang province, tourists joined a bamboo dance led by villagers, immersed in a joyful atmosphere filled with laughter.

No one would believe that the place was once covered by illegal buildings and stinky trash dumps.

“It was smelly in hot weather, with flies and mosquitoes flying all over the space,” villager Lei Hongchen recalled.

Deciding to change the situation, the village removed illegal buildings, refurbished the walls of residential buildings and upgraded public spaces. Today, with the idyllic landscape and unique local features, the village has become a renowned photogenic spot for social media.

The story of Pushan village is a miniature of how Zhejiang province has promoted its green program in rural areas, which aims at practicing the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” in rural areas.

In June 2003, under the initiative of Xi Jinping, who once served as provincial Party chief, Zhejiang launched the Green Rural Revival Program, which selects 10,000 administrative villages in the province for comprehensive improvement, and plans to turn 1,000 of them into demonstration villages of moderate prosperity in all respects.

Over the past two decades, a number of projects were launched under the program, including sewage treatment, closures of coal mines to tackle air and land pollution, and trash classification, which comprehensively lifted the image of the countryside in Zhejiang province.

Thanks to the program, the living environment was bettered in 27,000 administrative villages across the province. A total of 2,170 featured villages and over 3 million beautiful rural courtyards were built. The forest coverage in Zhejiang now exceeds 61 percent, indicating substantial improvement in rural ecology and environment.

In 2018, the program won the Champions of the Earth award, the highest environmental honor given by the United Nations.

Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. Over the recent years, Zhejiang province has vigorously developed eco-agriculture, rural e-commerce and rural tourism sectors, drawing a picture of a vibrant eco-driven economy.

In Miaoshan village of Huzhou, Zhejiang province, B&B hotels in the shape of straw hats were built, an old bucket factory was turned into an art gallery, and an ancient livestock farm was changed into a water park. Thanks to these transformations, the village saw a collective operating income of 2.28 million yuan ($322,974) last year.

In today’s Zhejiang, parks are commonly seen in villages, where residence buildings have been turned into B&B hotels. Villagers became shareholders who benefited from the local resources.

In 2022, the per capita disposable income of rural residents in the province stood at 37,565 yuan, up 6.6 percent from a year ago. The urban-rural income gap was narrowed to a ratio within 1.9 ahead of schedule. This has laid a solid foundation for Zhejiang to build itself into a demonstration zone for achieving common prosperity with its high-quality development.

The sound ecology is a big attraction to talents. Twelve kilometers away from Miaoshan village, there is a “valley of science” in Xisai Mountain, which is home to 23 small-sized scientific research institutions.

According to an official with Huzhou’s science and technology bureau, the valley has attracted over 500 sci-tech talents and 24 research programs. A batch of universities will be built there soon, including Huzhou College, the official said.

Exploring featured paths while sticking to historical and cultural traditions helps realize better development.

In Longxian village of Lishui in southwest Zhejiang, villager Wu Yongqiang runs a B&B hotel. Traditional fish-shaped lanterns are hanging inside the hotel and outside of it there are layers of terraces, where visitors can join rice transplanting, harvesting and fish-catching activities.

The traditional Rice-Fish Culture system, which fertilizes fields with fish manure and feeds fish with rice in turn, has a history of over 1,000 years in Longxian village. It was listed in the world’s first group of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2005.

Inheriting its unique farming traditions and leveraging local features, Longxian village has built a new form of rural tourism that combines sightseeing and experience activities based on the inheritance and conservation of the traditional Rice-Fish Culture system.

Up to now, Zhejiang province has 14 nationally important agricultural heritage sites and four Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. It has put 432 key villages and 2,105 general villages under protection and proper utilization in 10 batches of projects.

Aiming at environmental treatment, Zhejiang’s Green Rural Revival Program comes with targeted measures and well-coordinated plans in light of local conditions. It places importance on the conservation of traditional culture and characteristics of villages, and promotes transformation in development models and lifestyles.

The program has drawn a picture of China’s new countryside, which proves that Chinese modernization, with a feature of green development, follows a win-win approach to both economic progress and environmental protection.

In the future, the country will continue making steady efforts in building a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in, work for a beautiful China, and make more contributions to the world’s ecological progress.

By Fu Wen, Zhang Tengyang, Fan Haotian, People’s Daily

Old and valuable trees are “living fossils” that carry the memories of civilizations. Over the recent years, local authorities across China have been working to ensure that the responsibility of conserving and protecting old and valuable trees is fulfilled, rejuvenate them in a timely manner, and strengthen relevant monitoring and law enforcement, making remarkable progress in protecting and managing these plants.

In Guanhe village, Jinping township of Chongxin county, Pingliang, northwest China’s Gansu province, there stands a gigantic pagoda tree that is 26 meters high. It has a east-west crown spread of 43.2 meters and a north-south one of 37.7 meters. According to estimation, the tree is more than 3,200 years old.

Today, the ancient tree is still vibrant after living thousands of years.

Zhang Jizhen, head of Chongxin county’s forestry and grassland bureau, told People’s Daily that the county is home to 222 registered old and valuable trees.

The county has taken the protection of old and valuable trees as an important measure to advance ecological progress over the recent years. On one hand, it launched surveys to get the picture of relevant resources in the county; on the other hand, it improved policies and mechanisms to ensure the responsibility of protecting these plants is fulfilled.

Three surveys were conducted to get a knowledge of the trees more than 100 years old in the county by the county’s forestry and grassland bureau and township governments, which included field trips and in-situ calculation, and recorded the heights, ages, locations and altitudes of these trees.

Zhang noted that the bureau also made “ID cards” for these plants which reveal their species, serial numbers, genera, classes of protection and managing organizations.

Besides, Chongxin county also recruited volunteers for the protection of registered old trees.

In Zhengding county, Shijiazhuang, north China’s Hebei province, there is a 600-year-old pagoda tree whose circumference is at least as long as the arm spans of two adults.

“I used to play under the tree when I was little,” said Wang Yuhua, an official with Zhengding county’s urban management department, who’s responsible for protecting the ancient tree. She does physical “checkups” for the tree every day.

“Ancient trees have lived a very long time and their roots widespread, which makes it difficult to distribute water and nutrients. Thus, these trees are prone to plant diseases,” Wang told People’s Daily.

Physical “checkups” for trees, just like those for humans, examine the health conditions of trees, including their trunk stability, growth situation, root vitality and soil quality which affects the growth of roots. Wang said.

The checkups not only reveal the health conditions of the trees, but also provide basis for the protection and rejuvenation of them.

According to Wang, detailed plans have been made to ensure these checkups and daily maintenance are well carried out, and once problems are spotted, targeted measures will be implemented.

The Yellow Crane Tower in Wuchang district, Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province, is a famous historical site. Many old and valuable trees are growing around it in the Yellow Crane Tower park.

Shi Hongwen, director of the center for the protection of old and valuable trees in Wuhan, noted that each old tree around the Yellow Crane Tower has its own protection plan, which was formulated based on its species, age, growth situation and the environment it is in.

In the eastern section of the Yellow Crane Tower park, there is a big ginkgo tree encircled by an iron fence as tall as an adult. The fence was erected in 2016 because some citizens often did exercise under the tree, which impacted the growth of the tree’s root. After the fence was erected, the park designated another site where citizens can do exercise. This move has put the tree under better protection while addressing the demand of citizens.

In April 2017, a technical code for routine maintenance and rejuvenation engineering of historical trees in urban areas was implemented. According to the code, the maintenance of these trees shall be prioritized, which is the basis for rejuvenation. Feed and bleed, fertilization, pest control, crown cleaning, environment treatment and other technologies should be applied to maintain historical trees, the code said.

Weak and endangered old trees as well as those with potential safety hazards shall be rejuvenated through soil improvement, damage treatment, tree hole repairing and trunk reinforcing technologies.