Amid the campaign to step up ecological conservation and environmental protection in the past five years, Tibet invested 1.17 billion yuan (about 174 million U.S. dollars), rehabilitating 320,000 hectares of desertified land and extending the "green corridor" through afforestation, government figures show.

The trend of desertification has been initially checked, and the ecology and environment in the desertified areas have gradually improved, and many areas along the banks of the Yarlung Zangbo River have been afforested as a result.

Since the regional government issued the Decision to Promote Greening by Tree-Planting and Afforestation in 2017, a total of 863 villages and more than 80,000 households, which were previously registered for no afforestation activities, have been mobilized to take part in tree-planting.

Situated at the heart of the Earth's "Third Pole," Tibet plays a strategic role in maintaining the global ecological balance by protecting its plateau ecology.

Tibet is home to 47 nature reserves, covering about 34 percent of the region's land area. Economic projects are off-limits or strictly controlled on more than 800,000 square kilometers, roughly 70 percent of the region's total area.