A conservation initiative by a global Chinese firm has won the 2019 Champions of the Earth award, the UN highest environmental honor, according to a statement from UN Environment (UNEP) issued on Thursday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Ant Forest, a green initiative, was honored for turning the "green good deeds of half a billion people" into real trees planted in some of China's most arid regions. The UN agency recognized it in the "Inspiration and Action" category.

Since its launch in August 2016, the initiative has some 122 million trees planted in China's driest areas, which include regions in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gansu, Qinghai and Shanxi provinces. The trees cover an area of 112,000 hectares.

Champions of the Earth is the UN's flagship global environmental award, established by UNEP in 2005 to celebrate outstanding figures whose actions have a transformative positive impact on the environment.

From world leaders to environmental defenders and technology inventors, the award recognizes trailblazers who are working to protect our planet for the next generation.

The Champions of the Earth awards have previously recognized Chinese innovations and change-makers, particularly in the fields of tackling pollution and desertification.

Last year, the Zhejiang Green Rural Revival Program won the award for inspiration and action for its work to regenerate polluted waterways and damaged lands; and in 2017, the Saihanba Afforestation Community was recognized in the same category for transforming degraded land on the southern edge of Inner Mongolia into a lush paradise.

(Cover image via VCG)

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