CCTV news: July 12 is the "International Day for Sand and Dust Storm Prevention", and this year's theme is "From Source to Impact: Protecting Land and Life from Sand and Dust Storms".The reporter learned from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration that in the past 20 years, my country's spring dust weather has generally shown a trend of decreasing frequency and weakening intensity.

The latest data released by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration shows that a total of 8 sand and dust weather events occurred in my country this spring.Sand and dust weather events have decreased from an average of 12.5 times per year to 9.6 times in recent years.

In recent years, our country has adhered to the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, focusing on the "Three North" project, and comprehensively promoted comprehensive desertification prevention and control.During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, 152 million acres of desertified land were treated across the country.Since the three landmark battles of the "Three North" project began in June 2023, a total of 244 million acres of construction tasks have been completed.A number of key governance projects have been accelerated.Since the beginning of this year, the central government has allocated 27.7 billion yuan of investment, planned to implement 328 key projects, and arranged construction tasks of more than 95 million acres.

After long-term continuous management, the ecological conditions of my country's sandy areas have continued to improve.The "Three North" project area has completed afforestation of 480 million acres and managed 1.28 billion acres of degraded grassland. The forest coverage rate has increased from 5.05% in 1978 to 13.84%.The area of ​​desertified land nationwide has achieved a net decrease in four consecutive monitoring periods, from an average annual expansion of 5.15 million acres at the end of the last century to an average annual decrease of 10 million acres at present.The total amount of soil wind erosion in the eight major deserts and four major sandy lands has dropped by about 40% compared with 2000, and key management areas have achieved a historic transformation from "sands advancing and people retreating" to "greens advancing and sand receding".