The 10th Kubuqi International Desert Forum opened Tuesday in Ordos, northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, under the theme "Scientific Desertification Control and Green Development."
Participants adopted the "Consensus of the 10th Kubuqi International Desert Forum" and jointly launched the "China–Central Asia Desertification Control Partnership Initiative" and "the Global Desertification Monitoring and Digital Governance Initiative."
This year's forum focused on scientific desertification control, technology-enabled integrated management, grassland ecosystem protection and sustainable management, and land-friendly business development.
Through keynote speeches, thematic presentations, dialogues, and on-site visits, the forum showcased China's scientific approach to comprehensive desertification control, the progress of the new Three-North Shelterbelt forest program, practical measures, and achievements.
The Consensus emphasizes that combating desertification is not only about ecological restoration but also closely linked to human dignity.
It advocates respecting nature, applying scientific management, and upheld the integrated conservation and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts.
Efforts should combine ecosystem protection and degraded land restoration with the sustainable use of ecological resources to build a new pattern of harmonious coexistence between humans and deserts.
Key recommendations include scientifically delineating areas for protection, systematic restoration, and rational use, targeting desertification that can and should be managed; strengthening fundamental scientific research and applied technological development; and shifting desertification control from experience-based approaches to intelligent management.
The Consensus also calls for enhanced global action, incorporating grassland protection and restoration into the core agenda of international ecological governance, promoting technological cooperation and knowledge exchange in grassland ecological restoration, proposing the establishment of an International Grassland Alliance, and supporting the creation of an International Grassland Day.
The forum further encourages global businesses to respond to the "land-friendly business development" initiative by increasing green investment and innovating business models.
It reiterates support for broad international cooperation and the full implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), promoting synergy among related conventions, assisting developing countries in combating desertification, and advancing global ecological governance.