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Some of you may play Ant Forest. It is a game on Alipay. Users collect “energy” to make their “trees” grow. When the “energy” reaches a certain level, some organizations and companies will plant a real tree in a desert area of China. And now it seems that the nation’s efforts as a whole to make a greener world have paid off.

According to a study by NASA and published in the journal Nature Sustainability in February, China and India are mainly responsible for making the Earth greener over the past two decades. The study has found that since 2000 the Earth’s green leaf area has increased by 5 percent, or over 5 million square kilometers. That’s an area equivalent to the total area of the Amazon rainforest. It is mainly the result of big tree planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries, according to NASA. “China and India account for one third of the increased greening but contain only 9 percent of the planets land area covered in vegetation.” Chi Chen, the study’s lead author and a researcher at Boston University, US, told CNN. China was the major contributor, adding 25 percent to this increase, while India added 6.8 percent.

Over the past decades, China has made great efforts to green the land. In 1978, China began a national-level forestation project—the Three North Shelterbelt Forest Program, also known as the “Great Green Wall”. The program has seen many trees planted in 13 provinces and autonomous regions in northern China to act as windbreaks, according to China Daily. By the end of 2017, the forest coverage rate among the regions of the project had reached 13.57 percent, compared to 5.05 percent 40 years ago.

For example, Kubuqi Desert, which is near the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia, is the seventh largest in the country. It was once the source of sandstorms in Beijing. But thanks to forestation efforts, about one third of the Kubuqi Desert is now covered with trees and shrubs, and sandstorms are less common, reported Xinhua News Agency.

In the light of China’s success in dealing with desertification, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) believes China is a good example for others to follow. “China is one of the most successful countries in greening the desert and has lessons to share with the world.” UNEP Executive Director Erik Solheim told Xinhua.