According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification refers to land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. This Convention, which came into force in 1996, has 194 signatories, including China, which is one of the most affected countries.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 30% of its territory is impacted by land desertification, consequently impacting 400 million people. However, to date, Chinese efforts to alleviate the problem have been described by experts as ‘seriously insufficient’ and desertification continues to spread.

The major causes of land desertification in China are climate change and human economic activities. China's semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas continue to experience a rise in temperatures and drastic fall in precipitation. China’s industrial energy usage, over-utilization of land resources, deforestation, overgrazing, misuse of water resources, poor mining, energy and urban development and a general lack of environmental protection has intensified the process of desertification.

Land desertification is the most devastating ecological problem facing China, but it also disproportionally impacts the lives and livelihoods of ethnic minorities, such as Uyghurs in East Turkestan, Tibetans and Inner Mongolians, who have limited autonomy over their own land and distinctive historical claims to the area.

With the desert area increasing at a speed of 400 square kilometres per year, the problem of desertification in East Turkestan is particularly severe. 47.45% of the region’s total land area faces medium-degree or higher levels of desertification, making East Turkestan the region with the largest amount of desertified land within China. The growing threat of sandstorms, particularly in the region affected by the desertification of Lake Aibi, has disrupted local agriculture and industries, but also the lives of locals in general.

In Inner Mongolia life has not been easy. The soil is increasingly sandy and infertile. The small amount of crops that are produced are threatened by regular natural disasters like sandstorms. Climate change has certainly impacted the region; dry and hot weather is commonplace, further drying up many lakes.

But is climate change the only culprit? According to the international environmental group Greenpeace, one of the largest Chinese State-run coal companies, Shenhua Group, has been over-exploiting groundwater resources and illegally discharging toxic industrial wastewater. Greenpeace has reported that lakes have shrunk, wells have dried up and desert dunes continue to expand. Such exploitative actions have made it impossible for local farmers and herders  to  continue their traditional ways of lives and provide their families with a dignified life.

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