SHANGHAI Roots and Shoots is back in Inner Mongolia working on planting 1 million more trees. Volunteers who have been on previous tree-planting trips say they can see the positive impact the trees make on the environment. Lyu Feiran picks up a shovel.

Farmer Gao Zhongmin has lived in Molimiao, an area near Tongliao City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, since he was born. Working on a tree farm for nearly two decades, Gao, 32, still remembers how the area looked 20 years ago.

Molimiao has the biggest desert reservoir in Asia and has been described as "a pearl in the desert." Baidu Encyclopedia describes Molimiao as "rich with water weeds, sleek and fat fish, lots of sheep and beautiful scenery." Gao, however, says the description no longer fits.

Gao still remembers when the farm fields he works on now were covered with poplar trees, grassy plains and sheep and cows grazed in pastures.

"The poplar trees were planted by the government several decades ago, and it was green here," he says. "Later as the underground water drained, the poplar trees began to die out."

Now Molimiao's tree farm is no longer green and the poplar trees have all been removed. The ground is often covered with sand from March to May. Grass is nowhere to be seen, and neither are cows and sheep. Farmers planted corn and beans in the area to make a living. In winters, after the corn and beans are harvested, the tree farm becomes a vast stretch of barren land.

The situation, however, is expected to change for the better, even if it takes more than a decade. Shanghai Roots and Shoots, an organization focusing on improving the environment and founded by British primatologist Jane Goodall, has brought its Million Tree Project to Molimiao. Roots and Shoots has planted 1 million trees in Inner Mongolia since 2007 to slow down the speed of desertification.

From this year, the organization is starting over and it aims to plant 1 million more trees in Inner Mongolia.

Shanghai Daily recently followed Roots and Shoots and its volunteers to Tongliao. The volunteers included high school students, teachers and white-collar workers. They planted more than 1,500 trees within a day.

Mongolian scotch pine and shiny-leaved yellow horn trees were planted. The pine trees have proven effective in resisting desertification while the yellow horns have high economic value, which will benefit farmers. Saplings were planted every 1.5 meters.

After all the saplings were planted, farmers helped water them. As the water soaked through the soil completely, the volunteers placed another layer of soil around the saplings to hold them still.

"It's necessary to plant different trees in one tree farm," says Sun Litao, forestry manager of the Million Tree Project. "If there is only one species of tree, plant diseases and insects can wipe them out."

Roots and Shoots also allows farmers to plant crops such as corn and beans in the forests to increase their incomes.

Apart from planting new trees, volunteers also visited the project's 2010 planting site near Kulunqi City and pruned the branches of the now three-year-old trees.

Volunteers believe their actions are significant and have started to make a difference. Jon Nordmeyer, an English teacher from the US with the Shanghai American School Pudong Campus, has been to Inner Mongolia three times with Roots and Shoots in the past four years, including the trip to Kulunqi in 2010.

"I saw big changes (in the Kulunqi planting site) as the trees are now three years old," Nordmeyer says. "The soil is richer due to the tree leaves falling. And the farmers are now able to plant crops in the soil.

"I believe the students would also see clearly the impact of planting trees. Our actions are not only for the environment, but also for farmers' lives here," he adds.

Yena Shin, a 17-year-old student from South Korea at SAS, says it was her first trip to Inner Mongolia.

"The trip is not what I imagined," Shin says. "The place is more barren than I expected, and it hit me that planting trees here is more than necessary. I think I will be back next year."

The volunteers also had the opportunity to see desertification up close. Before planting the trees, they were taken to Taminchagan Desert, or "the Desert of Demons" in Mongolian.

The desert is beside a corn field, which belongs to Dongmiao Village. In the desert, several poplar trees are struggling to survive.

"The poplar trees were planted about 20 years ago," says Sun. "They were not meant to be planted in the desert, but right next to it. But now we can see they are already in the desert. We estimate that the desert expanded 30 or 40 meters in the past two decades."

Nordmeyer says he has visited the desert before and feels "it has come closer to the village."

Desertification has a negative impact on life in Tongliao. From March to May, fierce sandstorms hit the area regularly. Most houses in the area have a glass cover at the doorway to prevent sand from blowing indoors. When outdoors, people fully cover their face and hair during the spring.

"The air quality here is quite good in other seasons," says Sun. "But spring is hard for the locals."

Although the tree-planting project has started to make an impact, Roots and Shoots believes there is much work to be done in Inner Mongolia. The phenomenon of plant destruction still exists.

"According to the country's law to protect the plants here, livestock can only be kept in captivity, but sometimes farmers will let them roam to eat," Sun says. "Plus there is also some illegal lumbering."

Roots and Shoots says the poplar, pine and yellow horn trees have a short life span. The organization has signed a contract with the farmers stating that the trees, which usually live 20 to 30 years, can not be cut down. After that the trees are at their disposal. The potential income encourages the farmers to participate in the project.

"When the trees reach their life expectancy, farmers can lumber them and sell the wood," Sun says. "By then new saplings will have been planted. We hope this will create an advantageous cycle."