(CNN) -- Each year Yi Jiefeng does what she can to stop China turning into a desert. For the last 12 years the native of Shanghai has planted saplings in Inner Mongolia trying to reforest the region, but also to keep the memory of her dead son alive. In 2000, Yi's only son was killed in a traffic accident in Japan. Yi almost succumbed to grief, but instead decided to devote her life to living out her son's dream of planting trees in the deserts of Inner Mongolia. "He was fond of nature since he was a little boy," Yi said of her son, Yang Ruizhe.
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Green Life is a project to reforest desert areas of China
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Initiative came about through tragic death of founder's son
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Non-profit has planed over 1 million trees over 11 years
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