In the banner's Ulanmod grassland, scattered flocks of cattle and sheep graze on river banks and hillsides. According to the local grassland-livestock balance policy, 1.06 hectares of grassland are needed to breed one sheep and 5.3 hectares for each head of cattle. Herders receive an annual subsidy of about 4 yuan for every 666 square meters of contracted grassland.

"We have been living here for generations. Only by protecting the grassland well can we have a better life," said Sarengowa, a herder. She raises about 100 head of cattle and nearly 700 sheep on the grassland, but the number is half what it was in the past.

Having hired two shepherds, Sarengowa devotes her attention to a 33-square-meter dairy workshop she recently opened in cooperation with four other households.

"We produce traditional dairy products such as milk curd, yogurt and cheese to raise the herdsmen's sources of income," she said.

In years gone by, large swathes of grassland in the region suffered from desertification and salinization due to overgrazing, drought and other factors.

"When spring came, there would be a severe sandstorm lasting several days, leaving sand under the doors and on the windowsills," recalled Bai Jiranbayar, a herder in the banner's Hadabuqi village.

Hadabuqi is in the hinterland of the Horqin sandy area, China's second-largest sandy area, which covers more than 660,000 hectares. More than 86 percent lies in Inner Mongolia, with the rest in neighboring Jilin and Liaoning provinces.

In 2017, the banner implemented a complete ban on grazing. As a result of a poverty reduction policy, Bai Jiranbayar's family left their shabby clay house and moved into a newly built brick home funded by the government. Bai Jiranbayar began raising cattle in a shed.

As part of the efforts to restore decertified land, 100 hectares of sea buckthorn, planted three years ago, has grown 1 meter tall. Bai Jiranbayar is now one of the rangers for the sea buckthorn trees.

Jin Jalgaa, Party chief of the village, said the environmental benefits of the sea buckthorn forest have already become apparent, and the financial benefits will become clear next year, when the sea buckthorn fruit is harvested.

So far, 90 percent of the sandy land in the banner has been restored.

Over the past decade, Inner Mongolia has planted millions of hectares of trees and grass, which has seen the area of decertified land reduced continuously, according to local government statistics.