On July 30, 2026, a formal submission ceremony was held at the Deluxe organic exclusive factory deep in the Ulan Buh Desert, Dengkou County, Inner Mongolia. Representatives from Dengkou County, alongside those from Mengniu Group, formally presented the Desertification Control and Green Practice Report to a delegate from the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). This marks the world's first dairy industry-led desertification control case officially submitted to the UNOPS global call for green development best practices.
The journey from being China's eighth-largest desert to a benchmark for sustainable development is a testament to the collaborative effort. The Dengkou County government, in partnership with Mengniu Group, actively responded to the UN's global green case call, presenting a substantial green achievement to the world.
Behind this ceremony lies a clear and effective model: the tripartite synergy of local government, a leading enterprise, and the international community, working together to propel desertification control achievements onto the global stage. In November 2025, during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bel茅m, Brazil, UNOPS, in collaboration with the Green Development International Alliance under the Belt and Road Initiative, officially launched a global call for best practices in green development. The initiative aims to systematically collect and promote global green development results, identify exemplary sustainable practices, and build a platform for sharing experience to inject new momentum into the global green and low-carbon transition.
Seizing the opportunity of this global green case selection, all three parties played their roles and leveraged their strengths: the local government provided policy and land support, the leading enterprise contributed capital and technology, and the UN offered standards and a platform. This is a vivid practice of the UN's sustainable development philosophy, emphasizing not a single entity's solitary struggle, but the collaborative progress of diverse forces. UN Under-Secretary-General and UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva affirmed this in a video address: "The green transition requires the collective commitment and contributions of governments, international organizations, academia, civil society, and businesses. Enterprises play a key role in introducing innovation, technology, and investment, which can accelerate large-scale transformation."
Against the backdrop of global land degradation and food security pressures, the Ulan Buh practice proves that deserts can be "healed." The 220 square kilometers of oasis, over 6,200 mu of shelterbelts, and the return of wildlife demonstrate that Mengniu's explored "creating industrial value through ecological value" desertification control model not only provides a symbiotic path for ecological protection and agricultural development in sandy areas but also offers a replicable Chinese sample for comprehensive desertification control and sustainable agricultural development in global arid and semi-arid regions.
Seventeen years ago, Ulan Buh, meaning "red bull" in Mongolian, was a true "sea of death," with yellow sand blocking out the sun and not a blade of grass growing. In 2009, Mengniu, together with its industry chain partners, took root in the heart of the Ulan Buh Desert, beginning the exploration of planting greenery and controlling sand. At the start, pioneers faced three major challenges: a severe lack of water, difficulty stabilizing seedlings in shifting sands, and the inability to dispose of waste from large-scale farms. Starting from scratch, they cleared land, built roads, laid pipelines, and innovatively used a mixture of sand and local red clay to improve the substrate, supplemented by beneficial microorganisms and native earthworms to improve soil structure.
After years of continuous treatment, soil organic matter has increased 25-fold, and the land's water and fertilizer retention capacity has been fundamentally improved. A series of hard data bear witness to the transformation from a vast desert to an oasis: the cumulative planting of over 6,200 mu of shelterbelts has greened 220 square kilometers of desert; 220,000 mu of shifting sand has been transformed into high-quality pasture; 33 organic farms have been built; 140,000 dairy cows are raised here; the local microclimate of the oasis has significantly improved, with a substantial increase in regional precipitation; over 100 species of plants and animals have returned to this sandy sea; the net area of desertified land has decreased by 96.54 square kilometers; and sand and dust emissions have dropped by 80-90% compared to the 1980s. Behind this ecological improvement is a sustainable crop-livestock cycle system: nine manure treatment plants are laid out regionally, achieving 100% harmless treatment and full return of farm manure to the fields. This practice follows the balanced logic of "3 mu of pasture supporting 1 cow, and the manure from 1 cow nourishing 3 mu of pasture," breaking the zero-sum game between desertification control and livestock development, truly nurturing oases in the desert and high-quality milk sources in the sandy sea.
The core of the Ulan Buh model is "desert control - grass planting - cattle raising - milk production." This is not simply about afforestation or one-sided ecological restoration, but a deep coupling of ecological restoration and industrial development. The organic integration of comprehensive desert management and organic whole-industry chain construction has built an integrated development model of "planting, breeding, processing, grass, livestock, and milk," forging a sustainable path of "ecological industrialization and industrial ecology," transforming the once barren desert into a globally significant high-quality organic milk source base. From a patch of sand, a blade of grass, to a drop of milk, the entire development model establishes a complete cycle system: using desert control and grass planting to restore the desert ecology, cultivating high-quality forage to support large-scale organic farming; the manure from dairy cattle is returned to the fields as a resource, continuously nourishing the pastures, stabilizing sand area vegetation, and feeding back into desertification control.
Relying on technological innovation and green development concepts, ecological construction is no longer a pure cost, and industrial development does not come at the expense of the environment, forming a closed-loop whole industry chain that mutually nurtures and supports each other. The continuous ecological management is releasing industrial and brand value. Over a decade of uninterrupted sand area ecological restoration has nurtured a continuous desert oasis in Ulan Buh. The scarce, original, low-interference ecological endowment of the sand area has become a unique resource base for developing organic dairy. The Deluxe Desert Organic series products, relying on high-quality ecological resources, continue to gain market recognition, truly achieving a two-way empowerment of ecological and economic benefits. In August 2025, Deluxe Shajin Taohai Desert Organic Pure Milk was officially launched. The product originates from the pristine, unpolluted core ecological area deep in the Shajin Taohai Oasis, relying on the stepped layout of the desert organic production area, continuously enriching the organic product matrix, completing a three-tier quality upgrade from basic organic, to desert organic, and then to rare organic in the desert core area, persistently exploring a new sustainable development path for high-end organic dairy.
A "green letter" from the United Nations has shown the world Ulan Buh, placing its desertification control practice on a global sustainable development exchange platform. From a blade of grass to a glass of milk, from yellow sand to a vast oasis, from one enterprise's pioneering perseverance to tripartite synergy, the story of Ulan Buh is moving from China's northern frontier to the world. As UN Under-Secretary-General da Silva said in his video address: "Accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future is one of the most defining challenges of our time, and also one of the most important opportunities." Behind this Desertification Control and Green Practice Report submitted to UNOPS lies seventeen years of persistent exploration in sandland ecological restoration, the synergy of government-enterprise collaboration and industrial chain coordination, and a set of implementable, replicable Chinese desertification control solutions that balance ecological protection and industrial income. Through this opportunity, the Ulan Buh practice will engage in two-way exchange and mutual empowerment with excellent desertification control cases worldwide, exchanging governance ideas and sharing practical experiences to jointly improve global ecological restoration paths. Facing the common challenges of global land degradation, climate change, and food security, the Ulan Buh desertification control system is not just an ecological achievement for one region, but a replicable, scalable, and shareable development model. Using grass as a medium, animal husbandry to thrive, and greenery to spread the word, the green practice growing from the desert in northern China is continuously injecting Chinese wisdom and contributing Chinese strength to desertification control in global arid and semi-arid regions.