Ten percent of China's desert-encroached land has been transformed
so far, with desertification suspension working to reshape the
ecological environment and in some places improve it noticeably,
according to sources from the State Forestry Administration.
Head of the Office for Sand Control and Prevention under the State
Forestry Administration, Liu Tuo says that the present work of sand
prevention and control is being expertly carried out in China and
some large-scale projects have made great improvements to
desertification suspension and transformation. For example, the
Beijing-Tianjin sand and wind-breaking project and the fourth phase
of the project for building shelter-forest systems in three
northern areas (north, northwest and northeast China) are pushing
forward steadily. The two huge projects cover 85 percent of China's
desert-encroached land, and are part of a scheme to transform
190,000 square kilometers over 10 years, about 37 percent of
China's desert-encroached land. The state has invested about 10
billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) spent accumulatively on the two
projects and 3.81 million hectares have been transformed from
desertification.
After implementation (over three years), vegetation in the
concerned 'constructive' areas in the Beijing-Tianjin sand and
wind-break project began to grow with the vegetation cover rate
increasing by 20 percent. The general ecological situation has
begun to transform favorably and some parts have even seen
conspicuous ecological improvements.
Silt erosion has also been improved noticeably. For instance, the
silt input in Miyun Reservoir, located in suburban Beijing, has
decreased by 25,000 tons. Environmental monitoring statistics show
that dust falling in Beijing in 2002 decreased by 13.2 percent from
2001. In addition, economic results of the projects have begun to
be seen. Herdsmen, living in the constructive areas, are becoming
free from poverty at a faster pace with annual incomes increasing
200 to 300 yuan (about US$24 to 36) on average.
The project of building shelter-forests in north, northwest and
northeast China has been listed at the top of world ecological
projects. The key to the project has been to transform farmland
into forest network construction to enable sand control and desert
prevention. Construction of the fourth phase of the project,
started two years ago, has transformed 195 million mu (13
million hectares) desert-encroached land, planted forests of 21.08
million mu (1.4 million hectares), and closed hillsides of
16.5 million mu (1.1 million hectares) to facilitate
afforestation.
(China.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, June 18, 2003)