Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region on the northern border of China, is building a great green wall to keep its sand away from Beijing, China's capital and the region's southern neighbor.
The autonomous region has become a major source of sand and dust in Beijing because of its rapid desertification. Almost no area in northeastern Asia has escaped the results of the region's environmental deterioration.
In March Beijingers experienced the fiercest duststorms of the last decade with the storms said to have "dumped" an average of more than two kilograms of dust on every Beijinger.
The Chinese government plans to inject 3 billion yuan (US$361 million) into the improvement of the region's ecology, a sum topping the state's ecological investments at the provincial level and covering the largest area of land.
However, Chen Ruiqing, vice-chairman of the standing committee of the regional People's Congress, said the green wall project will also have to rely on public donations.
Public donations are a good supplement to state investment, Chen said. "Everyone should do something to improve the state of the environment and everyone will benefit from doing so."
Chen said the autonomous region's practice of improving the ecosystem by the use of public donations is still something new in China and worth promoting. However, Chen said, donations must be given voluntarily by people and institutions.
The project has attracted 30 million yuan (US$3.6 million) in donations over the past two years, one million yuan (US$120,000) of which is from overseas donors.
Chen said the project is expected to attract donations from one million people and institutions to enable 66,667 hectares of trees and grass to be planted by 2005.
( August 10, 2002)
