The opening ceremony of the 2019 Global Youth Program for Combatting Desertification was recently held in Ordos City, Dalad Banner, Inner Mongolia, according to a report by the official account of the Ministry of Public Security’s Overseas NGO Office. The program was organized by the South Korean-China Cultural and Youth Association and the Dalad Banner Youth League. Former United Nations general Secretary Ban Ki-moon and a previous South Korean ambassador to China attend the ceremony, alongside government officials from Beijing and Dalad Banner.
Afterwards South Korean volunteers, students from Beijing, local residents and the ceremony’s distinguished guests all planted trees in the desert. The goal of this program was to encourage youth to actively participate in desertification-prevention activities. The program also gave South Korean and Chinese young people the chance to communicate, bringing the two groups closer together.
The South Korean-China Cultural and Youth Association was founded in 2001 by an ex-South Korean ambassador to China to encourage understanding between the two countries, and to help cooperation in non-governmental environmental protection efforts. The Association frequently participates and organizes environmental protection activities. In 2006 the Association cooperated with the All-China Youth Federation, the China International Youth Exchange Center, the Inner Mongolia Youth Federation, and the Dalad Banner’s government to organize a “Green Great Wall” desertification-prevention program with the goal of creating a model forest in the Kubuqi desert.
