MTP | TRIP REVIEW 2019 Autumn

In August 2019, 80 volunteers from 12 companies came to the Baijitan National Nature Reserve in Ningxia, experiencing desertification and participating in desert control. The reserve is located in the corner of the Maowusu sandland, one of the four major sandlands in China. Here, we mainly lead volunteers to experience the process of combating desertification by making straw grid and planting shrubs.

Our main task on Day1 is to plant hand-sized bare root seedings of Caragana Korshinskii Kom, which is good at desert control, into the sandland. But of course, this is not an easy task for most volunteers who have not been in desert before. However, under the guidance of local workers and our team members, volunteers gradually find tips on planting. Finally, more than 80 baskets, about 4,500 bare root seedings of Caragana Korshinskii Kom were planted.

Day 2, make straw grids. To protect sand from moving is the first step to control desert. Volunteers paved abandoned straws evenly on the sandland along a line, and then step on a shovel from the middle of straws, so that two ends will stand up as natural barriers, which can effectively slow down wind speed 20~30 centimeters above the ground, and therefore reduce the amount of sand transported by the wind. Gradually, from above, the straw grids on a slope constructed by volunteers look really good, it is not a simple job for volunteers, especially it is their first time.

In the afternoon, volunteers visited Desertification Prevention and Control Exhibition Hall in the Nature Reserve, and took photos and played on a dune that is intended for comparison purposes. Even though the work in two-day experience for volunteers can easily be done by a professional worker within several days, it is a valuable process for them to get close to nature and get to know desertification. And the process echoes with the Jane Goodall’s expectation — Only if we understand can we care; Only if we care will we help; Only if we help, shall all be saved.