Saudi official commends Beijing's green efforts

China has done "exceptionally well" in tackling land degradation, drought and desertification, and its sharing of knowledge and experience will promote global efforts in fighting land degradation, says a senior Saudi Arabian official.

Osama Ibrahim Faqeeha, deputy minister of environment of Saudi Arabia, said his country will host the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Riyadh next month, which is a "vital and timely opportunity" to increase drought resilience, improve monitoring and enhance global commitments to land restoration.

"China's contribution to global land restoration has been significant, particularly through initiatives like the Great Green Wall Project, which has seen more than 66 billion trees planted and the reclamation of millions of hectares of desertified land," Faqeeha said, adding the scale of the project's greening is "so massive that, according to NASA it is observable from space".