FROM A TO B:: SHENYANG TO THE HORQUIN DESERT
Japan-based NPO The Green Network and Timberland participate in an ambitious greening project – one million trees by 2010.
Wanderlust for exotic places around the globe may wane with every journalist’s footprint but every time I mention or think of Mongolia, it remains mystical, never failing to conjure up images as one of those fertile frontiers. While the winds from China’s pop-up cities have spread traces of modernity throughout the region, lowly-populated agricultural-based frontier villages continue to thrive on the fringes of the Horquin Desert, a 1,800 hectare area of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. To this day, the region is a place where cultural life remains rooted tradition in an environment which is highly dynamic and increasingly threatening. On the Mongolian frontier the wind never seems to stop, persisting as one steady whisper. What few may know about the Horquin, a 1,800 hectare area, is that similar to other deserts, it is expanding with every gust of wind, grain by grain, over the plentiful patches of green. For centuries, these sands have found their way South and blanketed villages while taking over countless hectares of pristine grassland. Occasionally rapturing neighboring cities, the sands of the Horquin have been known and proven to impact places as far away as Tokyo and France. This desertification of arable land is in turn exacerbated by livestock overgrazing, crop cultivation as well as logging, all to meet regional economic demand. On the Mongolian perimeter, families are in jeopardy, left only with the option to relocate.
While the situation may seem helpless, the seeds of change have begun to take root. Since 1999 the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, has been getting greener everyday, thanks due to the Japanese non-profit organization, Green Network. Director Yoshio Kitaura has been dedicating time and effort to lessening the harsh effects of the Horquin while educating and putting to work anyone willing to join him and his organization on their mission. Just eight years ago, Green Network began to enlist the help of both Japanese and Chinese universities as well as receiving sponsorship from corporations like Timberland, which since 2001 has been sending volunteers from its Japan and Asia-Pacific offices. To see what was happening firsthand, I joined Green Network and Timberland’s Horquin Tree Planting Project and ventured into one of the most dynamic and unknown regions of the world.
Just after arriving in Shenyan, we met Mr. Kitaura and the latest group of volunteers from Japan, Singapore and China, loaded our gear onto the bus and started our roughly four hour trip towards the Horquin. That our highway was straight as an arrow, seemed to sum up the region for me- as if we were driving through the aorta of this burgeoning economic juggernaut. Every head turn brought economic activity into focus, our gaze occasionally interrupted by trucks carrying livestock and roadside fruit stands while towering clusters of high rise buildings ominously appeared in the hazy distance. In the middle of all this economic activity I still had to remind myself that we were headed for a place imagined as desolate.
As we continued, Kitaura began an informative lecture. For nearly ten years, Kitaura has been active about the importance of the Horquin Tree Planting Project but even more importantly, adopting a strategy of leading by example. While I got the sense that this was really a pan-Asian project, Kitaura alluded in his initial remarks that it was not always easy. When the project started several years ago, Kitaura recounted the initial scoffs and doubt however, today, volunteers from local parts both young and old have joined with a spirit of commitment as endless as these frontier winds. Now Kitaura counts and appreciates all of the help from the believers he has won over.
We arrived in Kanchika as the sun set and during a welcoming dinner I got to know the rest of our volunteer team; we shared our common goals and aspirations for the project. One volunteer, humbly stood, “I’m just here for the Earth,” while a university student followed, “I wanted to volunteer and help the Earth, so I brought my mother along to show her what I am passionate about.” Afterwards, we ventured out into the streets of Kanchika only to be met with dimly-lit streets. Although on that evening stroll, I made my first local friend, a younger university student working the late shift in her parents bodega-style corner store nearby. After greetings and small talk about the local area, she began to tell us a story. “Once, I made some friends from Japan who came to plant trees to help protect the environment because the sandstorms remain a severe problem for the people here. I thought they were great people for coming to help.” The smiles seemed pre-congratulatory after which she told us, “you are great too,” giving a greater sense of purpose to our mission and efforts with the Horquin Project.
After an early morning meeting over breakfast, our team of volunteers made our way out to the edges of the desert for our first day of field work. The paved roads gave way to dirt and upon arrival, we gathered around Kitaura as he explained how increasing timber cultivation had left the region with fewer trees, especially a lack of older trees. With logging of older and taller trees around 80 years old, the fringe forests, the initial windbreak for sandstorms, has become a dotted plain of younger saplings easily tormented by the wind unable to block blowing sands. Our guide went on to explain that our mission for the day was to prune this section of poplar trees in order to allow them to continue growing higher therefore speeding up the replacement of the once-tall elder trees. By pruning and cutting off the thin branches, anything below shoulder length, these poplar trees would conserve enough energy to grow higher and better serve as windbreaks. Equipping ourselves with a pair of gloves, a set of pliers and mini saws to cut unwanted branches, we ventured into the forest. As our faces switched back and forth between smiles and grimaces of hard work, Kitaura observed and took time to check our progress while offering encouragement, extra tips and even local berries. Deeper and deeper into the forest, a sense of realization dawned that this forest had been made by people who came before us. We were doing the work that the next group of volunteers would come to see. This was cooperation over time- over generations- with real results. After a few hours of pruning amongst the saplings that had reached about 10 meters, we left the forest as still as it was, but noticeably improved.
Afterwards, out to the fringes of another section of the Horquin planting area where settlements were distanced hundreds of meters apart, we drove over desert dunes on pick-up trucks to reach a forest of younger saplings facing harsher conditions, drowning in sand. I pondered how their roots could take hold. Despite the barren conditions, we learned of an underground well that would provide irrigation to this younger forest which had been laid out in a grid by the previous volunteers- a different kind of ecological footprint. As we teamed up with more local volunteers, we listened as Kitaura demonstrated how we were to plant pine trees fresh from the nursery. “Dig a hole knee deep, get on your hands and knees, tear the protective plastic cover off the roots, drop it in and shovel in the sand and then move on to the next point in the grid.
Row by row, our team of volunteers advanced like a garrison against looming rain clouds which threatened to halt our mission. After planting over 900 trees in a matter of hours, it was time to irrigate from the well. Lining up, we proceeded row by row and passed buckets of water and essentially poured life into every tree well. After finishing, we gathered and took a group photo to celebrate our hard work and for leaving a positive ecological footprint.
Working with the local volunteers added to the cultural experience of participating in the Horquin Project. On two separate occasions, I had found myself invited into their homes. Only a short drive away from the day’s work site, we visited the home of an elder with wrinkles nearly as steep as the desert dunes, a volunteer who lived in a simplistic brick home centered around corn and squash plantations. As we discussed daily life I noticed the common sleeping area- a wide bed designed with long, hard winters in mind. Our talk ventured into history, admittedly triggered by a Genghis Kahn portrait on the wall, and it became clear that lineage was something clearly remembered as far back as possible. “That’s Genghis Khan, our ancestor, “do you know of him?” as our conversation continued.
Spending time with one of the younger volunteers, our talk ventured into religion and simply asking what it was he prayed for, he simply answered, “Rain.” Meanwhile, his wife had ventured out into the local garden and emerged with an offering of squash.
The following day we reached where the Timberland forest lay since its birth in 2001. Timberland had teamed up with the Green Network and bought up about several hectares of land and vowed to make a forest of their own with the goal of planting 1,000,000 trees by 2010. It seemed possible with enough hands but still a challenge for a landscape dependent on 240 milliliters of water a year. Upon hearing that statistic, I looked down at the bottle of water in my hand- it was more than what the area receives a year. Just then we encountered a large flock of herded sheep, a passing reminder of overgrazing; a practice often encouraged by local farmers along this vast expanse of territory.
As we observed the steady progress of the Timberland forest, we marched up formed sand dunes only to be met with powerful winds which sent us retreating to the shade and shelter of a hidden grove a few kilometers away. As we lunched with our local volunteers, protected from the winds, it made the project’s objective clear if this little grove was to be taken as an example. As we continued deeper into the grove, we continued working together- pruning the poplar trees in the area straight through the afternoon.
For our last day, Kitaura had provided the opportunity for the Japanese team to engage in workshop sessions where we discussed the planting project, models of sustainable lifestyles in fringe communities as well as ideas closer to home such as how to lead a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle. Something invaluable we could all bring back home.
An excerpt of this original text and photography appeared in Paper Sky No. 31 (Denmark, January 2010)
The Green Network (website in Japanese) is located at:
502 Bay City 8-14 Takigawa, Yokohama, Kanagawa 221-0834.
