The Chinese government has spent half a century, and continuing today, working to restore degraded environments.
China began by greening the Loess Plateau, a formerly productive forest and grassland ecosystem turned into a sandy wasteland by centuries of exploitative farming. The government work with villagers on the ground to change farming practices, build dams and terraces, plant trees, and more. Altogether, the project restored 4 million acres and lifted 2.5 million people out of poverty.
See more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2G79sIJ97w
China then applied these same practices to greening the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts, stopping sandstorms, halting the growth of the deserts, and restoring former desert into productive grassland:
Caption says forest coverage increased from 8% to 73%.