There is a bronze statue of an envoy of green in the Exemplary
Desert Development Zone in Engebei in the
Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region. The inscription on the base of the
statue states: Mr. Toyama regards desert prevention as a road to
world peace. Although he is in his 90s, he never gives up his goal.
His spirit is admirable, his aspiration can be examined and his
meritorious service should be commended.
Devoted to Afforestation on Desert
Toyama Masahide is a surly old man. He has shouted at a reporter
who was interviewing him, "Don't you journalist know coverage alone
cannot make the world green? The whole world would have been
encroached by desert if there was nothing more than news
coverage."
Fifteen years ago, the 80-year-old man went to the Yellow River
valley such as Gansu and Ningxia provinces in western China,
wearing a green armband with a logo of "Assistance Group to Chinese
Desert Green Development." With the ambition of "putting on green
clothes on the yellow dragon," he began his project in the desert.
Fifteen years later, now 96, he looks much thinner than before, but
is as hale and hearty as ever. Still wearing that green armband, he
is engrossed in his greenery project as usual.
Toyama is from Yamanashi Prefecture of Japan. He is an honorary
professor of the Tottori Daigaku (University), Doctor of Agronomy,
and leader of the Japanese Desert Practice Association. He was
honored as "earth villager," honorary citizen of the Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region, and was granted a United Nations award for his
contribution to the betterment of humanity for continuously
planting trees in the Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia. All the
people in the Exemplary Desert Development Zone in Engebei called
him a "great old man."
Sweating with Chinese People
Toyama drew up a cooperation plan with the Chinese Academy of
Sciences when he visited China 22 years ago. After going back
to Japan, he set up the Desert Practice Association of Japan and
began sending Japanese Assistance Groups to China to help the
mainland beat back its encroaching deserts.
Toyama said friendship between China and Japan is not only a topic
of conservation, but Japanese people should also sweat together
with Chinese people. To carry out his promise, the old man traveled
between Japan and Lanzhou for five years. When he was 84, in 1990,
he was appointed a general instructor of the Exemplary Desert
Development Zone in Engebei. From then on, people would always see
an old man in work clothes, carrying a kit bag, wearing a sun
helmet and a pair of high rain boots on duty there. Toyama worked
10 hours a day, for eight to nine months each year. He also made
speaking tours in Japan to mobilize Japanese volunteers to plant
trees in China.
Ten years of effort have gained considerable results. One third of
the exemplary zone, or 100,000 mu (10,704 acres) of desert
have been planted with trees, with a large area of shrubbery such
as Salix Mongolica struggling tenaciously against wind and dust in
cold weather. Now, the 336th assisting group send by the Desert
Practice Association of Japan is staying on the exemplary zone.
Among them, there are people over 70 years of age, as well as
teenagers. They come to China at their own expense, bringing
saplings along with them. According to the record in the Desert
Practice Association of Japan, all together 6,600 Japanese
volunteers in 335 groups have been to Engebei at their own expense
since 1991 to the end of 2001 and they have finished three "1
million trees projects."
The Toughest Problem
It's a normal procedure before the group set off to Engebei for
Toyama to give a speech. The old man believes that "planting trees
on desert is a way towards world's peace," in which the spirit of
the Foolish Old Man who moved the mountains should be
encouraged.
Toyama also has troubles. This year, the sandstorm initiating from
the boundary between China and Mongolia, not only crossed northern
China but also hit Japan. In the high-altitude photo of the earth
taken by a satellite, there is a white cover over the Sea of Japan.
Even the volcanoes in Japan were covered by dust. Pointing to the
photo, the old man said a quarter of the Earth's land is becoming
desert, and it's possible that the figure will be one-third in
another thousand years. Moreover, half of the land in China and the
United States is now desertified. "If China doesn't deal with this,
Beijing will be threatened by sand dunes in 100 years," he
warns.
Another thing troubling the old man is the insufficiency of
saplings. "There is no sapling. The key problem is the lack of
saplings." Toyama repeated the sentences in Chinese. "Planting a
sapling needs two to three years. Without saplings, how can you
plant trees?"
In
regard to the desertification in China, the old man took out the
high-altitude photo of the Earth again, and wrote a sentence on it:
"China will be lost to desert if 100 trees cannot be planted each
day. Please plant more saplings." He said: "The whole Chinese
people should take part in the planting project, instead of acting
only on festivals such as the Arbor Day (in China, on March
12)."
Toyama has said many times he regards Engebei as his second home as
well as his final settling place. When being asked the recipe for
health, the 96-year-old man smiled, "Life doesn't need rest. To me,
I just work from morning to night. It's time to rest after
death."
(china.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, July 11, 2002)