Bank of China has supported efforts to combat desertification through innovative green finance solutions, contributing to China's broader ecological restoration work. 

The role of such efforts is highlighted each year on June 17, the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, which aims to raise global awareness of the importance of combating desertification.

Afforestation 

In April, BOC launched an ecological restoration initiative in Minqin, Northwest China's Gansu province. It encourages public participation in environmental protection by allowing customers to donate their daily rewards points through its mobile banking app. The funds are then directed to the construction of a shelter belt in the Sifangdun Desert, wildlife protection, and biodiversity monitoring.

Customers donate their daily rewards points on BOC's mobile banking app.

BOC also collaborated with the China Green Foundation, local governments, forestry and grassland authorities, individual customers, and young volunteers to plant saxaul seedlings and other sand-tolerant plants in spring, underscoring their actions to safeguarding the ecosystem and their determination to build a beautiful China. 

Desert Control 

In Wuwei, Gansu province, BOC has provided green loans for a solar power desertification control industrialization demonstration project. This has not only improved the ecological environment and promoted green energy development in the region, but also boosted local employment, creating a win-win outcome for farmers, businesses, and the local government.

The photovoltaic module array of the Jiuduntan photovoltaic desertification control demonstration park in Wuwei, Gansu.

In Ordos, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a BOC-supported new energy base project employs a "forest-solar complementary" approach to maximize the efficiency of land use. The project — which allows for planting cash crops beneath and between solar panels — facilitates windbreaks and sand fixation with industrial income growth, exploring a new model for the synergistic development of the ecological and solar industries.

A service team from BOC's Inner Mongolia branch visits the site of the new energy construction project in the Kubuqi Desert.

In Yulin, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, BOC has facilitated the construction of a 100,000-kilowatt solar project operated by China Huaneng Group by issuing a land reclamation deposit guarantee, replacing cash deposits with bank credit, thereby revitalizing the project's working capital. 

In Fuxin, Northeast China's Liaoning province, BOC has provided credit for an ecological solar integration project, which allows for power generation and shrimp farming simultaneously. 

The Dajin Heavy Industry Fishery-Solar Complementary Photovoltaic Project supported by BOC's Liaoning branch and Hebei branch.

As of the end of the first quarter, BOC has approved nearly RMB 40 billion in corporate credit for key photovoltaic desertification control projects in Gansu and Liaoning provinces — as well as in the Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions — with loans exceeding RMB 10 billion, supporting desertification prevention and control and the high-quality development of the Three-North regions.

Green Finance

In Lingwu, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, BOC quickly responded to the financing needs of a 2 million-kilowatt composite solar base project, completing approvals in just over 10 days and issuing cumulative loans of more than RMB 4.4 billion.

In the Tengger Desert, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, BOC, as the lead bank, has supported a 16 million-kilowatt new energy base project through syndicated financing. This project saves 7.2 million tons of standard coal annually and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 20 million tons.

In the Ulan Buh Desert, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, BOC has launched the nation's first nature-positive ESG-linked commercial loan to support a local company in desert control, ecological restoration, and green production.

Calves stand in individual pens at an organic pasture in Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

BOC is committed to continuously upholding green development, innovating green financial products, optimizing service models, and supporting ecological conservation, contributing to the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program and the Beautiful China Initiative.