South Korea’s largest carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. said Sunday that it has helped transform 30 square kilometers of desert in Inner Mongolia into grassland as part of its global eco-conservation effort.

The company started planting suaeda glauca, or seepweeds, in the Chakanor district of the Kunshantag desert in 2008, in a bid to combat rapid desertification caused by overgrazing and global climate change. The region some 660 kilometers north of Beijing is one of the desert areas cited for triggering huge yellow dust storms that sweep across Northeast Asia, including South Korea, each spring.

Hyundai said that while progress has been made, it plans to continue planting seepweeds, which are resistant to harsh climate conditions, with the aim of transforming at least 50 square kilometers of desert into grassland by the end of 2012.

The company said that as suaeda glauca can be used and sold as food, medicine and animal feed, locals will have an incentive to replant and care for the plants in the future.

Hyundai, the flagship company of Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s fifth largest carmaker, was the first South Korean company to win formal recognition from China for its anti-desertification project last year. It has been in the forefront of taking steps to preserve the environment in its production systems and by making more fuel-efficient automobiles.

The company said it will highlight its successes at the 10th Conference Of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which will be held in the Changwon Exhibition Convention Center starting Monday. The Hyundai “green zone” will demonstrate how the company has helped reverse desertification in Inner Mongolia.

Some 3,000 representatives from 194 countries, including non-governmental organization officials and businessmen, are expected to attend the international gathering that runs through Oct. 21 in the industrial city 398 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

The UNCCD is part of an ongoing endeavor to curb desertification that is endangering the lives of millions of people worldwide, and directly or indirectly affecting 40 percent of the Earth’s landmass. (Yonhap News)

The United Nations said that 87 percent of ongoing desertification is due to human actions such as rapid deforestation and excessive farming. 

(Yonhap News)