Ibrahim Thiaw, the executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, recently presented the Chinese delegation at the ongoing UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a commemorative plaque on China's 30th anniversary of joining the convention.

Thiaw said that it is astonishing how China's efforts in desertification control have combined long-term planning goals with effective methods, integrated ecological benefits with economic interests, and merged advanced technologies with traditional knowledge, successfully managing over half of the treatable desertified land.

He made these remarks on Friday at the China Pavilion during the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.