Liu said that photovoltaic desert control, which involves laying photovoltaic panels for electricity generation and planting or breeding underneath them, is becoming an increasingly common industrial model in desertification control areas, too.

Over the past 30 years of implementing the UN convention to combat desertification, China has embarked on a unique path of desertification control characterized by balancing ecological construction with economic development, achieving a win-win situation in combating desertification and alleviating poverty, said Guan Zhi'ou, head of the Chinese delegation to COP16 and director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Since the initiation of the Three-North Shelterbelt Program in 1978, 13 provinces and regions in northern China, while planting trees and promoting the ecology, have been utilizing the unique resources of sandy areas to moderately develop industries such as traditional Chinese medicinal materials, high-quality forage grass, economic tree and fruit crops, and desert tourism.