Ordos launches friendship tree-planting campaign

A public tree-planting campaign themed "Plant a Friendship Tree in Inner Mongolia" was launched on Sept 10 at the Engebe Ecological Demonstration Zone in Dalad Banner, Ordos, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Nearly 600 volunteers from across China joined the campaign in the Kubuqi Desert, planting trees and shrubs and installing sand barriers to help combat desertification and support ecological restoration.

The campaign covered 300 mu (20 hectares) of desertified land and followed the standards of China's Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Project.

The campaign was inspired by the decades-long friendship between American teacher Ronald Sakolsky and Chinese desertification-control pioneer Yin Yuzhen. In 1999, while teaching in China, Sakolsky learned about Yin's efforts to combat desertification in Inner Mongolia and donated $5,000 to support her tree-planting work.

Earlier this year, Sakolsky traveled back to the Mu Us Desert after a 26-year absence to reunite with Yin. Before leaving, he encouraged more people to visit Inner Mongolia and plant a tree, turning their cross-border friendship into a call for wider public participation in environmental protection.

The campaign aims to engage the public in desertification control, strengthen the ecological barrier in northern China, and promote people-to-people friendship through shared efforts to protect the environment.