Korla, the capital city of Xinjiang's Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous
Prefecture, is now being hailed "New Green Island in the Desert",
with 6,041 mu (15 mu = 1 hectare) of artificial
forest.
Encompassing the eastern half of the Taklimakan Desert and
bordering Tibet, Qinghai and Gansu, the entire area has a population of
800,000, the majority being the Han Chinese and the remaining being
260,000 Uygurs, 40,000 Mongols and 1,000 Tibetans.
"Korla is really an artificial miracle in the Taklimakan Desert.
Thanks to the joint efforts of all
ethnic groups, we've created this new green
island in the remote area," Shen Jungang, director from the
Administrative Office of the Forest for Protection in Korla, told
China.org.cn.
According to him, the weather conditions in Korla are harsh with
less than 50mm annual rainfall, leaving the city continuously
exposed to drought. The average annual temperature there is 11.4
degrees centigrade, there are 32 days of sandstorm a year.
The desertified area in the city stands at 1,267 square
kilometers, occupying 17.8 percent of Korla's land.
Shen said that in 1999, the city began to introduce the advanced
underground irrigation technology from Israel, which has helped to
save 73 percent more water than the traditional method.
"This new technology changed the forestation of Korla with 90
percent of the artificial forest now blossoming," he added.
By 2006, the municipal government had invested over 93.18
million yuan (US$11.65 million) in afforestation with the tree and
grass coverage having increased by more than 52,000
mu.
Thanks to a local program of a tree-planting on March 12, the
National Tree-Planting Day, over 1 million people have taken part
in the activities over the past five years.
Beneficial policies and regulations were also adopted to
stimulate local afforestation. "For example, whoever invests in
afforestation needs not to pay the taxes for land use, except 800
yuan (US$100) per mu for the cost of necessary facilities.
In addition, 20 percent of this land can be used for construction"
he said.
Thanks to this policy, over 6,041 mu of deserts have
been replaced by trees.
(China.org.cn by Staff Reporter Wang Ke, September 26,
2006)
