The Ginkgo Foundation and China's tourist information-sharing website Mafengwo have launched a joint campaign to continue efforts to save an area of previously fertile land in Minqin county of Northwest China's Gansu province, which continues to be threatened by desertification.

The two have launched Arbor Day on Mafengwo, an initiative calling on the public to either donate money or participate in tree planting in Minqin, which is described by local officials as an "ecological disaster area".

Desertification is a term used for land degradation in which relatively dry regions become increasingly arid, typically losing their main bodies of water, as well as vegetation and wildlife.

Minqin is located between the Tengger Desert and the Badain Jaran Desert, and is surrounded on three sides by desert.

The sacsaoul is native to the region, and can range in size from a large shrub to a small tree. There has been ongoing planting of the trees for several years, with large areas of afforestation already created.

According to Wang Jiamin, head of corporate social responsibility at Mafengwo, visitors to the site can sign up to take part in sacsaoul planting in Minqin, and donors and planters will have their names hung on the new trees in recognition of their efforts.

But the biggest thrust of the campaign is to encourage people to come and visit Minqin for themselves, he said, to get a better understanding of the issues being faced there, which include people's homes and farmland being lost to the approaching desert.

The public can sign up to support the campaign on mafengwo.cn, with the next tree-planting trip to Mingqin on April 2-4.

According to the Ginkgo Foundation's Ma Junhe, more than 6,000 volunteers have participated over the past decade in efforts to fight against desertification in Minqin, planting some 560,000 sacsaouls on thousands of hectares of former-desert land.

A Minqin local himself, Ma said he has been devoted to the planting program for 10 years but insists much work still needs to be done.

"There are sandstorms during spring, which cause huge damage to properties and crops because of the disappearance of trees and the invading wasteland," he said, which has already forced many villagers to move away.

"This former oasis is shrinking and will eventually disappear if desertification continues. Already many sacsaoul trees have withering and died.

"Some experts forecast if the situation continues, Minqin will be swallowed by sand in 17 years," said Ma.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn