Jiang Liling (second from right) and her colleagues make a straw checkerboard barrier in the desert in Minqin county, Gansu province. [Photo/China Daily]

Greening of Gansu's Minqin county stabilizes environment, provides source of income

Jiang Liling returned to her village in Gansu province, which is bordered by the Badain Jaran and the Tengger deserts on three sides, to devote herself to turning the yellow to green.

When she was a teenager, many villagers moved their families elsewhere, unable to bear the harsh environment.

"I once asked my father when we would move, but he said where else can we go, this is our home," Jiang recalled.

The 43-year-old is now a civil servant at the county's office for transforming farmland into forests and grassland.

In order to find a way to save her village, Jiang enrolled at a technical school to study forestry. After graduation, she joined the campaign to prevent desertification, and in the 24 years since then, her life has been closely linked to desert control and development.

In 2019, she was given the "National Advanced Individual with Outstanding Contribution to Ecological Construction" award.

"In the past, desertification forced residents to leave their homes. Now, we are recapturing lost land through the restoration of vegetation," Jiang said, adding that Minqin in Wuwei city has now become a place of hope with blue skies, green land and clear water.

By the end of last year, the county had human-made forests covering 153,333 hectares, and forest coverage had increased from 3 percent in the 1950s to 18.28 percent, thanks to generations of dedicated sand control efforts.

Jiang began by growing shrubs on sandy land. As a result of long-term exposure to the pesticides she was using, she began to suffer from allergies. There were suggestions that she change jobs, but she was determined to keep going.

"The reason I had come back here to work was to make my village green. I really didn't want to see it suffering from sandstorms," she said.

No matter what difficulties she encountered, Jiang never forgot why she was there.