China's 'Great Green Wall' Brings Hope But Also Hardship

A student works in the greening project across arid and desert regions, known as the "Great Green Wall" in the Kubuqi Desert, in Ordos, in China's northern Inner Mongolia region (Credit: AFP)

Inner Mongolian herder Dorj looked bitterly at the vast grasslands where his flock once grazed freely, before the practice was banned as part of a massive Chinese state greening project.

Restrictions on traditional grazing are a key part of China's "Great Green Wall" campaign, a decades-old anti-desertification project credited with "greening" over 90 million hectares.