Same wind, different dust
A Beijing Daily news report about a sandstorm in late March 2000 says that "At noon on the 27th, workers were blown away from the roof of a two-storey under-construction building, leaving two dead. The same day, strong winds overturned an auto parts store east of Lize Bridge, while in Haidian district, winds bent what was once a restaurant's five-meter-high chimney into a 'leaning tower'."
At the turn of the century, it was common to come across such news reports every spring. In fact, for an entire generation, sandstorms originating from northern China are an indelible part of memory. The Inner Mongolia autonomous region, often symbolized by vast stretches of wind-swept grass under clear blue skies, revealing flocks of sheep and cattle, has drawn widespread concern because of the ecological disasters that frequent it.
Grassland degradation, which began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, coupled with years of cultivation, mining, overgrazing and indiscriminate logging, had left the Inner Mongolian steppe scarred and depleted by the end of the 20th century. With more than 73.5 percent of its grasslands degraded, the resulting ecological crisis severely constrained the sustainable development of Inner Mongolia and even the wider North China region.
With its diverse natural landscapes — forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers, lakes and deserts, Inner Mongolia has a comprehensive ecosystem shaped over a long period of time. Its ecological protection and restoration must therefore be pursued through integrated governance.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the country has coordinated a series of major ecological initiatives and people-benefiting policies, including the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, the Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm Source Control Project, the Grain for Green Program and subsidies for grassland ecological protection. These have provided a solid institutional foundation for the holistic conservation and systematic restoration of Inner Mongolia's composite ecosystem.
Local governments have proactively implemented these policies, while all sectors of society have actively participated in and coordinated their efforts. Together, they have consolidated the foundations for ecological construction and put in place the essential framework for building a strong ecological security barrier in northern China. Today, Hohhot, the capital of the autonomous region, has once again embraced the greenery it had long been deprived of.
Hohhot's forest cover had increased from 13.88 percent in 2000 to 16.59 percent by the end of 2025; its comprehensive grassland vegetation cover had risen from 30 percent to about 50 percent and its wetland protection rate had reached 35.2 percent.
Under the sixth phase of the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, the city completed an afforestation drive in 2.28 million mu (about 152,000 hectares) of land six years ahead of schedule. People strolling through the grassland area within the city can now look up to clear blue skies, listen to birds singing and feel the gentle and refreshing spring breeze.
After a decade of implementing emergency ecological water replenishment and comprehensive water environment restoration measures, the Daihai Lake in Liangcheng county, Ulaanqab — which was once on the verge of drying up — has stabilized with a surface area of over 60 square kilometers.
Groundwater levels in the lake's floodplain areas have risen steadily. Vegetation cover has improved remarkably and both the variety and population of wild bird species have increased, contributing to a steady rise in the lake's biodiversity.
Following the Manglai Model
Across the vast grasslands of Inner Mongolia, the "Manglai Model" has become a prime example of modernized pastoral area development. In recent years, Manglai Gacha in Kelun Sumu, New Barag Right Banner, has adopted a cooperative approach that has reversed the previous pattern of isolated, individual operations; revived the traditional wisdom of rotational grazing; and unlocked the ecological endowments and resource value of the grasslands.
Today, building on its sound grassland ecological foundation, Manglai Gacha has leveraged regional premium brands to promote high-quality ecological livestock products at fair prices, while also exploring integrated development paths through "grassland tourism plus" models.
In 2024, a family ranch called Mijige, named after the owner, received over 790 trips throughout the year, generating 1.19 million yuan ($175,801) in revenue. Kelun Camp, focusing on border herder lifestyle experiences, attracted approximately 2,500 visitors and generated 1.8 million yuan in economic returns.
In January 2026, Manglai Gacha successfully signed Hulunbuir's first grassland carbon inclusion project, a market-based conservation tool that rewards sustainable grassland management by translating carbon sequestration into verifiable, tradable credits, creating economic value while fighting climate change and supporting pastoral communities. The project achieved precise quantification of the ecological value of its 585,600 mu of grassland. The initial grassland carbon-inclusiveness project, which was signed in January 2026 and made revenue of 527,600 yuan was all returned to the herders, effectively opening up a channel for converting ecological value into tangible benefits.
In the heart of the Ujimqin Grassland, as herds of livestock slowly return in the glow of the setting sun, a group of teenagers, guided by local herders, set about building a traditional Mongolian yurt with their own hands. This is a study tour activity organized by the nomad nature school of West Ujimqin Banner deep within the grasslands.
Every summer, local herder cooperatives routinely organize grassland research and study tours, attracting visitors from all over the country. Guests immerse themselves in the natural scenery, learn to identify local flora and fauna, experience the traditional livelihoods of herders, and gain insights into the region's pristine folk culture — all while deepening their connection with nature and the grasslands.
Today, from grassy steppes and deserts to forested mountains and lakes, such examples of ecologically integrated development are flourishing across Inner Mongolia in every season. Grassland tourism is gradually transforming and upgrading — shifting from simple sightseeing to a diversified range of experiences, including ecological and cultural immersion, science and nature education, and leisure and wellness activities.
Through such concrete actions, Inner Mongolia has revealed the underlying logic of converting ecological resources into economic value, smoothed the pathway from "ecological resources" to "ecological products" to "economic value", and continued to advance the iterative upgrading of industrial ecologicalization and the diversified integration of ecological industrialization.
While maintaining a virtuous cycle of the regional ecosystem, it has broadened channels for increasing people's incomes and achieved coordinated progress in ecological protection, industrial development and the improvement of people's livelihoods.
Enhancing traditional pillar industries
Inner Mongolia's industrial transformation and upgrading reflect not only the diversification of its tourism sector but also, more profoundly, the quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of its traditional pillar industries.
As a major national base for energy and strategic resources, Inner Mongolia produced 1.29 billion metric tons of raw coal in 2025, fulfilling its significant responsibility of safeguarding national energy security. Meanwhile, Inner Mongolia has successively issued policy documents regarding energy development and carbon peaking plans, providing clear goals and policy support for the green transformation of its energy industry.
In Ordos, the Shendong Coal Group has developed ecological and environmental protection measures to help create a green mining area in the midst of the desert, with continuous ecological restoration efforts.
The group has established demonstration bases. For example, the pilot program in Halagou has enabled Ordos to restore over 550 square kilometers, gradually bringing vitality back to what was once barren desert.
Even more commendable is that Inner Mongolia is gradually moving away from excessive dependence on traditional energy sources, fully unleashing its advantages in wind and solar resources, and continuously transforming its resource endowments into new industrial momentum and improved ecological conditions.
On the edge of the Ulan Buh Desert, 2.08 million photovoltaic panels stretch far into the distance. The straw checkerboard barriers laid beneath and around the photovoltaic arrays, along with drought-tolerant plants such as Nitraria, have not only effectively slowed shifting sand dunes and prevented the panels from being buried, but also continuously improved site conditions. Over time, sand-adapted plant communities are emerging, gradually reversing desertification and achieving a mutual reinforcement between power generation and desert control.
Allowing grasslands to recover
In the process of transforming and upgrading its animal husbandry sector, Inner Mongolia has strengthened fine-breed reproduction to safeguard germplasm resources, increased forage supply to reduce grazing pressure, promoted feedlots to ensure stable production capacity and leveraged differentiated competition to highlight its green development advantages.
In Hulesitai Sumu, Urat Middle Banner, Bayannur, a demonstration site for a nomadic off-site feedlot model is under construction. It encourages the transition from traditional pastoralism to a system that combines winter feedlot raising with summer grazing and complementary farming-herding practices. In simple terms, it means keeping livestock indoors in winter, and letting them graze outdoors in summer. This not only sustains livestock production capacity and ensures herder incomes, but also allows grasslands to fully recover — fostering a virtuous cycle between ecological protection and livestock development.
Clearly, in Inner Mongolia's practice of green transformation of traditional industries, ecological protection, people's livelihood security and regional development have advanced in synergy, reinforcing one another. This approach has held the ecological bottom line, energized industrial growth and benefited all groups.
Tech-driven green conservation
Technology, of course, continues to empower Inner Mongolia in building a solid ecological security barrier in China's north. Deep in the Qilaotu Mountains at the northern foot of the Yanshan Range, the Heilihe National Nature Reserve in Inner Mongolia has applied advanced technological tools — including manned and unmanned aerial patrols, intelligent cloud platforms, and electronic monitoring devices — to establish a digital and intelligent conservation system for this ancient forest region. This marks a leap forward from "manual management and protection" to "technology-driven green conservation".
In the project areas of the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program in the Mu Us Sandy Land, the old approach of "backbreaking manual labor and massive manpower" has given way to a new path of "mechanized leadership and intelligent empowerment". Sand barrier-seeding integrated machines, multi-drill shrub hole diggers, hole-type reseeding machines, unmanned rope-laying machines, and small crawler sand-barrier machines are now widely used. These intelligent tools have not only effectively reduced labor costs and physical strain but also enabled standardized, precise, and highly efficient afforestation and sand stabilization in sandy areas.
Currently, the mechanization rate for desertification control across Inner Mongolia has reached 54 percent, and in key sandy areas such as the Mu Us and Kubuqi deserts it exceeds 60 percent. Technology has also deeply empowered ecological restoration and the production practices of farmers and herders. The research team at the Xilingol Grassland Ecosystem National Field Scientific Observation and Research Station, drawing on the "three-stage theory of degraded grassland ecological restoration" — vegetation establishment, structural optimization, and functional enhancement — took the lead in formulating the Technical Regulations for Grassland Ecological Restoration.
These have become the industry standard for grassland restoration nationwide and have been promoted and applied across various leagues and cities in Inner Mongolia, having achieved initial positive results. In places such as Otog Banner, Darhan Muminggan United Banner, Bairin Right Banner, and Horqin Left Wing Middle Banner, farmers and herders have adopted "aerial pastures" — using drones or other means to deliver supplementary feed — which not only ensures balanced nutrition for livestock but also reduces the excessive reliance on traditional grazing, thus creating new possibilities for grassland conservation.
Inner Mongolia has integrated digital technologies, intelligent equipment and biotechnology into the entire process of ecological monitoring, sandy land management, and ecological restoration, injecting a powerful "technological core" into the effort to build a solid ecological security barrier in northern China.
Today, the wind still blows — but it no longer carries sand and dust. Through systematic governance of its comprehensive ecosystem involving multiple stakeholders, Inner Mongolia has promoted the integration of ecological industrialization and industrial ecologicalization, and has fostered synergy among the three dimensions of ecological protection, livelihood improvement, and regional development. Empowered by new quality productive forces, Inner Mongolia continues to consolidate its ecological foundation and strengthen the important ecological security barrier in northern China, providing a solid cornerstone for the region's sustainable development and the nation's ecological security.
The author is director of the Institute of Pastoral Development at the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences.
The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
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