Deforestation in China is a classical example of how unsustainable economic practices cause environmental disasters, which in turn hinders development. Overgrazing in Inner Mongolia led to rapid desertification; over logging in the West the catastrophic flooding of the Yangtze River in 1998. The "Green Gift to Our Beloved Country" program is a series of tree planting and forest protection projects initiated by The Conservancy Association in 1997. The program aims at drawing people’s attention to the most critical environmental issues. CA recognized the desertification in western and northern China as an urgent issue. Desert spread in an astonishing rate, a whole village could be buried under the sand overnight. The land was impoverished and the local people could hardly make a living. However, as most villagers are minority ethnic groups, their suffering was not on top of Central Government’s agenda. Help from outside was badly needed. CA organized a tree-planting campaign and recruited 50 volunteers from Hong Kong another 2000 volunteers were recruited by an NGO in Beijing. A contract was signed between CA and the local government, witnessed by representative from the National Forestry Bureau and Qu Geping, Chairman of the Environmental Protection Committee. As the Inner Mongolia campaign was a success, when Yunnan and Sichuan were hit hard by the 1998 Yangtze River flood, the approach was carried over to those projects.