Fourteen years ago, President Xi Jinping coined the phrase "clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" during a visit to Anji, when he was Party secretary of Zhejiang province.

In the ensuing years, the central government has taken strong measures on environmental and ecological protection.

But as the economy transitions from high-speed growth to high-quality development, building an "ecological civilization" has entered a critical period, Xi said at a national conference on ecological and environmental protection in May last year.

In recent decades, a series of campaigns has been implemented by the central government to tackle pollution and improve the environment.

Fighting desertification

Desertification has been a major challenge for many countries and regions. In 1994, the General Assembly of the UN adopted the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

According to the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, the area of deserts in China has been reduced, on average, by 2,424 square kilometers every year over the past decade. Rehabilitation of sandy areas has resulted in the formation of 120 new parks for people to enjoy.

Efforts to "green" areas have played a crucial role in the country's fight against desertification.

In 1998, China launched the Natural Forest Protection Program, thanks to which forest coverage in China had soared from 12 percent in the 1980s to 22.96 percent last year.

One of the exemplars of the campaign is the Elion Resources Group, which has been recognized by the UN for its development of a desert eco-industry that has slowed desertification.

In Kubuqi, China's seventh-largest desert located in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Elion has greened 600,000 hectares of land and helped lift more than 102,000 people out of poverty through the development of solar energy and tourism, as well as planting herbs for traditional Chinese medicine.