The news conference for the new desertification treatment index for Ejin Horoo Banner is held in Hohhot on Sept 22. [Photo/people.cn]

A news conference on the new desertification treatment index for Ejin Horoo Banner – administered by Ordos city in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region – was held in the autonomous region’s capital city of Hohhot on Sept 22.

The index, jointly issued by the China Economic Information Service and the Ejin Horoo Banner government, is seen as an important new monitoring measure.

It aims to help build a comprehensive evaluation system for desertification control from the three dimensions of desertification restoration, vegetation coverage and climate improvement.

Statistics released at the news conference shows that the desertification control index value of Ejin Horoo Banner reached 123.77 points in 2019, an increase of 23.77 percent over 2000, indicating that the overall control effect had shown a continuous upward trend.

In terms of one of the core monitoring areas, desertification restoration has achieved remarkable results. 

The areas covered by Ejin Horoo Banner’s desertified land and desert have continued to achieve double reduction, and the degree of desertification has also been reduced year by year. 

In 2019, the desertification restoration sub-index increased by 47 percent compared with that in 2000.

In recent years, the vegetation coverage of Ejin Horoo Banner has been improved. However, since 2010, as afforestation tasks have shifted to improving forest quality, the area of newly added forest land has been less and the growth of vegetation coverage has slowed down.

Meanwhile, the weather conditions of the banner have fluctuated greatly, but the overall situation has also improved. In particular, from 2014 to 2016, despite being affected by factors such as the city construction, the weather conditions have improved significantly.