China is to host a United Nations meeting on fighting desertification in September, an official said Sunday.

 

中国将于今年9月举行一场对抗沙漠化的联合国会议。

 

About 1,400 delegates from 195 parties to a UN special convention on desertification will gather in Ordos, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous¹ Region, from early to mid-September, said Zhang Yongli, deputy head of the State Forestry² Administration, at a press conference.

 

They will discuss national goals and action plans to realize zero net land degradation³, whereby land degradation is either avoided or offset⁴ by land restoration, by 2030, Zhang told reporters.

 

China's desertified area was reduced by 12,120 square kilometers from 2009 to the end of 2014, while its area of sandified land dropped 9,902 square kilometers during the period, official monitoring showed.

 

According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, 12 million hectares of land are lost to desertification every year across the globe and the figure could rise due to population growth, climatic pressure and unsustainable farming practices.

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