Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The 10th Kubuqi International Desert Forum opened on Tuesday in Ordos, in China's northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. China's remarkable progress in addressing desertification was highlighted, with a focus on the restoration of 13.3 million hectares over the past five years.
At the opening ceremony, Yasmine Fouad, the executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), delivered a video message in which she stated that land degradation is endangering our planet at an alarming rate. Every year, 100 million hectares — an area the size of four football fields — are lost.
"The question is not whether the world can act, but whether we will. Here in Kubuqi, you have answered with a resounding yes," Fouad said. She noted that the Kubuqi model demonstrates a fundamental truth: when we restore our land, we restore human dignity. It means jobs — over 100,000 of them. It means new industries that sustain families. It means communities that no longer see the desert as an adversary, but rather as a partner in their future. She stressed that this transformation was not the work of one sector alone.
The 10th Kubuqi International Desert Forum opened on Tuesday in Ordos, in China's northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. China's remarkable progress in addressing desertification was highlighted, with a focus on the restoration of 13.3 million hectares over the past five years.
At the opening ceremony, Yasmine Fouad, the executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), delivered a video message in which she stated that land degradation is endangering our planet at an alarming rate. Every year, 100 million hectares — an area the size of four football fields — are lost.
"The question is not whether the world can act, but whether we will. Here in Kubuqi, you have answered with a resounding yes," Fouad said. She noted that the Kubuqi model demonstrates a fundamental truth: when we restore our land, we restore human dignity. It means jobs — over 100,000 of them. It means new industries that sustain families. It means communities that no longer see the desert as an adversary, but rather as a partner in their future. She stressed that this transformation was not the work of one sector alone.
