The city of Ordos officially launches an advisory body for desertification control in Ejin Horoo Banner on May 15. The local authorities named the body as the Center for Launching Desertification Control Index. [Photo/WeChat account of Ordos News]

The city of Ordos officially launched an advisory body for desertification control in Ejin Horoo Banner on May 15. The local authorities named the body as the Center for Launching Desertification Control Index.

According to local reports, the center -- which functions as an advisory body to collect, analyze, apply and release data related to sand control -- is the first one of its kind in the world. 

It will cooperate with forestry authorities and institutes across the country to collect data and build a database for the calculation of the desertification control index.

The analyzed data will be handed in to the government to facilitate policy making.

Yu Changhong, editor-in-chief of the Inner Mongolian division of Xinhua News Agency, and Su Cuifang, director of the Ordos publicity department, attended the launch ceremony.

Ordos has long been renowned for its successful sand control efforts. By the end of 2018, the forestry area in the city had reached 2.34 million hectares, with the forestry coverage reaching 26.91 percent.

In 2017, the 13th Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification took place in Ordos, offering the city a forum to share its sand control experience with the world.

An engineer works at the newly-launched advisory body for desertification control in Ordos. [Photo/WeChat account of Ordos News]