Inner Mongolia’s Road-Based Desert Control Gains Momentum

Across the vast sandy expanses of Inner Mongolia, a network of desert-crossing roads is reshaping the battle against desertification. As of June 2026, the autonomous region has built 4,334 kilometers of roads through desert terrain, driving desertification control of 6.061 million mu (approximately 404,000 hectares), according to Xinhua News. By 2030, road mileage across the region’s Three-North project battle zones is projected to reach 8,593 kilometers, enabling desertification control over 13.54 million mu.

A Strategy Born from Necessity

The concept of road-based desert control emerged organically about 30 years ago, when residents of the Horqin Sandy Land and Kubuqi Desert began building roads to travel out of sandy areas. To protect these hard-won roads from being buried by shifting sand, people began treating mobile sand along both sides. Gradually, they discovered that wherever roads were built, the surrounding sand could be stabilized—giving rise to a new desertification control model.

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s June 2023 inspection of Inner Mongolia accelerated this approach, calling for innovative desertification control models and comprehensive treatment of key areas. The Three-North project’s three major battle zones—the Yellow River “Ji Zi Wan” battle, the Horqin and Hunshandake Sandy Land elimination battle, and the Hexi Corridor-Taklamakan Desert Edge blocking battle—include “two and a half” in Inner Mongolia, with over 60 percent of the country’s comprehensive desertification treatment tasks concentrated in the region.

Roads as the Skeleton of Ecological Restoration

In Wengniute Banner, 18 desert-crossing roads totaling 531 kilometers now form a “seven horizontal, eleven vertical” grid network, driving comprehensive desertification treatment of 3.655 million mu along their routes—more than half of the banner’s desertified land. The most famous of these, the 91-kilometer Wubai Road, spans east-west through the heart of the Horqin Sandy Land and was selected for the Ministry of Transport’s 2023 “Top 10 Most Beautiful Rural Roads” list, as reported by Shuimu Net.

“‘Road-based desert control’ effectively solves the problem of treating contiguous mobile sandy land,” said Dong Xuecun, a staff member at the Inner Mongolia Hunshandake Large-scale Forest Farm’s Keshenketeng Banner branch. “Treating sandy land is like eating a watermelon—you need to cut it into small pieces to make it easier to eat.”

The approach has delivered dramatic results. In Keshenketeng Banner, a 126,500-mu contiguous sandy area at Cuocaoshan was divided into manageable units by a desert-crossing road with branch roads. Treatment was completed in just five months instead of the originally planned two years. Desertification control efficiency has improved by over 30 percent, as materials and machinery can now be transported directly to work sites.

Transforming Lives and Livelihoods

The benefits extend far beyond ecological restoration. For herders living in sandy areas, the roads have been transformative. Hongmei, a herder in Wengniute Banner’s Wulan Aodu Gacha, recalled that reaching the banner government seat at Wudan Town previously required riding a horse through sandy terrain to reach a road, then taking a bus—a round trip that consumed an entire day. Since the Wuri Line was built to her doorstep, driving into town takes about one hour.

Economic opportunities have followed. Erdeng Mengke, Party Secretary of Chaidamu Gacha in Zhenglan Banner, noted that after the desert-crossing road was completed, transportation costs dropped significantly. “The freight rate for one ton of forage can be tens of yuan cheaper, and a cow can sell for 300 to 500 yuan more,” he said. Herders’ breeding income has increased by over 10,000 yuan per year, and many now plan to expand their breeding operations. Some are even exploring rural tourism, with the restored sandy land attracting visitors seeking to experience the transformed landscape.

Integrating Green Energy

Road-based desert control is also being combined with photovoltaic (PV) desert control to create a multi-layered approach. In Dalad Banner, a road runs through the Kubuqi Desert flanked by PV panels extending like a blue “ocean.” The base, composed of 196,000 PV panels, generates 2 billion kWh of green electricity annually while treating 50,000 mu of desert. Plants such as yangchai, alfalfa, and oats grow beneath the panels, supporting local ecosystems.

“The ‘PV Great Wall’ on both sides of the desert-crossing roads, together with forest-grass sand barriers, forms a blue-green desertification control belt that not only firmly locks the yellow sand on the south bank of the Yellow River but also supports the development of the new energy industry,” said Zhang Xu, Deputy Director of Dalad Banner Energy Bureau.

From Local Experiment to Regional Strategy

Two key policy documents have elevated road-based desert control from local exploration to a region-wide strategy. In August 2024, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Department of Transport and Forestry and Grassland Bureau jointly issued the “Road-Based Desert Control Development Plan (2024-2030)” for the Horqin and Hunshandake Sandy Land Elimination Zone, targeting 6,363 kilometers of new or renovated desert-crossing roads and desertification control of 12.01 million mu by 2030, as documented on the Chinese government website.

In November 2025, the same departments issued a second implementation plan covering the Yellow River “Ji Zi Wan” Battle Zone and the Hexi Corridor-Taklamakan Desert Edge Blocking Zone, proposing 2,230 kilometers of new desert-crossing rural roads and treatment of 1.53 million mu of desertified land, as reported by Beijiang News.

“The two documents connect sequentially and cover the main desertified areas of Inner Mongolia, marking the ‘road-based desert control’ model’s rise from local exploration to a region-wide strategy,” said Wang Zhaosheng, Director of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Forestry and Grassland Bureau. “‘Road-based desert control’ is becoming an important tool for Inner Mongolia to tackle the ‘Three-North’ project and promote coordinated improvement of ecological environment and economic development in sandy areas.”

Broader Progress and National Application

Inner Mongolia’s desertification control efforts have yielded significant results. As of June 15, 2026, the region had completed 6.9349 million mu of desertification control for the year, according to China National Radio. Since the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, Inner Mongolia has completed 138 million mu of ecological construction tasks, including 72.9 million mu of desertification control, ranking first nationally. Forest coverage has reached 21.98 percent.

The “road-based desert control” concept has also been widely adopted across China. In Gansu’s Gulang County, a 168-kilometer “five horizontal, nine vertical” road network divides contiguous sandy land into 15 independent treatment units. In the Taklamakan Desert, a north-south desert highway is flanked by protective forests and distributed PV stations, creating a multi-layered sand defense system.

Zhang Jingbo, Deputy Director of the Desert Forestry Experimental Center at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, highlighted the model’s broader significance: “The ‘road-based desert control’ model uses roads as the skeleton to achieve systematic treatment of sandy areas in sections, effectively quantifying ecological benefits such as windbreak and sand fixation and carbon sequestration, providing a replicable path for ecological governance in arid regions.”

Looking Ahead

With the Desertification Prevention and Control Regulations taking effect on January 1, 2026, Inner Mongolia has established a legal framework for its desertification control efforts. The region aims to complete over 40 million mu of ecological construction tasks in 2026, including more than 15 million mu of desertification control, shifting from “scale and speed” to “quality and efficiency.”

As Wengniute Banner Party Secretary Meng He noted, the region plans to open two new desert-crossing roads totaling 50 kilometers in 2026, expected to drive treatment of 65,000 mu of sandy land along their routes. Each new road represents another step toward the vision of “building a road, treating a sandy area, and enriching a community”—a model that positions roads not merely as infrastructure but as catalysts for ecological restoration and sustainable development across China’s northern frontier.