Visitors get a closer look at the festival’s sea-buckthorn products.

The 1st International Sea-buckthorn Culture Festival opened in Ejin Horo Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia on Aug 26, ahead of the 13th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD.

Sponsored by the Inner Mongolia Sea-buckthorn Ecological Industry Promotion Association, the festival aims at promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the sea-buckthorn industry.

Ordos is blessed with abundant, widely distributed sea-buckthorn resources and boasts advantages in processing and marketing.

In addition, the city has spared no effort to boost the industry through ecological construction projects, which have improved the local environment and economy and increased the income of farmers and herdsmen.

Ordos is now the largest sea-buckthorn planting base in the world, with a planting area exceeding 420,000 hectares and a conservation area of 285,333 hectares.

In the years to come, sea-buckthorn will continue to be the preferred plant for combating desertification, and the sea-buckthorn industry will be further developed to eliminate local poverty.

Sea-buckthorn, also referred to as sandthorn, sallowthorn, or seaberry, is a herb. Its leaves, flowers, and fruits are used to make medicine. [Photo provided by China Daily]

Due to infrequent precipitation and barren land, arbors can hardly survive in most areas of Northwest China. Sea-buckthorn, grown in the western deserts and cold hilly and gully regions, is renowned for its exceptional tolerance to cold and drought and is an ideal plant for control of desertification and construction of windbreaks.

Inner Mongolia Tianjiao Shengguo Bio-technology Co has utilized the biological characteristics of sea-buckthorn and initiated a development strategy, which involves planting 133,333 hectares of sea-buckthorns on both sides of the Yellow River to curb soil erosion and protect the mother river.

Various activities were carried out during the three-day festival, including a forum, exhibition, on-the-spot investigation of a sea-buckthorn planting base and planting and harvesting of sea-buckthorns.

The event has shown the benefits of sea-buckthorn, involved participants in sharing and exchanging the latest products and technologies and provided businesspeople at home and abroad with a platform for marketing and cooperation.