Camels rest at the Bagadavs Lake in the Tengger Desert in Alshaa. TUMUR/FOR C

陈小将

He quickly organized a team to undertake afforestation techniques including "cloud planting", a process that involves the use of aircraft loaded with tree and grass seeds which are sown from the air over land in need of greening.
The method allows seeds to be sown in remote mountainous regions, sandy areas or places that are difficult to reach with conventional land vehicles.
Cloud planting is usually conducted at the edge of deserts where vegetation covers less than 5 percent of the land. The aim is that trees should grow rapidly and their roots will provide protection by anchoring the sand.
To aid the seeds' survival, the process usually occurs in June and July, when there is more rain, Liu said. He added that the usual mix is 500 grams of seeds per 0.067 hectares because the scant water resources are unable to support higher volumes. "Despite initial theories that areas with annual precipitation of less than 200 millimeters were unsuitable for this technique, forestry experts and workers in the league persevered with their experiments," he said.
In Alshaa, annual precipitation ranges from 37 mm to 150 mm. Meanwhile, the average annual evaporation level is as high as 4,200 mm.
The area has an extremely fragile environment, the most serious degree of desertification, the worst natural conditions and the greatest difficulty in land governance, according to the local government.
In the 1980s, local people turned to cloud planting for afforestation. Lacking today's satellite technology, they manually marked key areas for sowing seeds, using red flags and mirrors as reference points for the aircraft. In the scorching desertified areas, the forestry workers carried their tools and food supplies while walking for hours to reach the designated spots.