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Timberland Japan and GreenNet have partnered to reduce desertification in Horqin, China. In 2001, Timberland started on one of its community service projects to support greening activities in China’s Horqin Desert that is situated in Inner Mongolia, through Japan based non-profit organisation – GreenNet.

Established in January 2000, Green Net is a Japanese non-profit organization that has undertaken the uphill task of reforestation and education in an effort to reverse the desertification process. The population in Inner Mongolia has increased four times in the last 10 years and livestock has increased three hundred times, leading to insufficient land and agriculture to meet the needs for food and mercantile transactions. This has led to the overuse and abuse of land for both food and commercial purposes.

Since more than a decade, Green Net has worked not just to plant trees, but also to plant the seeds of environmentalism through educative reforms with the villages and through schools to sustain their efforts. They have also initiated successful programs in schools and allow students to earn credits when they take part in environmental projects.

Guided by the expertise and wisdom of GreenNet, Timberland Japan seeks to restore the desert’s grasslands by planting, and sustaining shrubs and trees while educating the local population on more sustainable farming practices. Consumers, employees, students and business partners unite in this ambitious effort to plant one million trees by 2010.Timberland also sends volunteers to China to help plant trees and restore the formerly rich grasslands in that area.
The survival rate of the trees has dipped from 50% to 45% due to the recent increase in rewards farmers obtain from the government for their produce and the increase in number of penalization rules for conservation efforts. Eleven years and over one million trees later, the dream of returning the Horqin Desert to its original state of verdant grasslands and forests has been transformed to the Timberland Forest and Timberland has signed up to plant one million more trees by 2015.