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Zhang Dongsheng, head of the Aba Tibet and Qiang Autonomous
Prefecture in Sichuan Province who is in Beijing to attend the
First Session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), cited
some signs of the improving ecological environment in Aba and
neighboring Garze Prefecture on the upper reaches of the river.
He
said the number of wild animals in the area has increased, and the
incidence of mud-rock flows and floods has dropped
significantly.
"Before 1999, it took at least one week for the muddy river water
to become clear after a heavy rain. Now it takes only three days,"
he said.
Aba is located in the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and
covers an area of 84,000 square kilometers. The Minjiang River and
Dadu River, two main tributaries of the Yangtze, cut through the
prefecture, which is also a major water source of the Yellow River,
China's second longest river.
Excessive felling of trees in the past has resulted in serious
damage to the local ecological environment and serious soil
erosion, with hundreds of million tons of soil entering the Yangtze
every year.
Since the program to protect the natural forest and return
cultivated land to forests was launched, Sichuan Province ordered
the felling of natural forest be stopped completely in 174 counties
and cities, and enhanced protection of nearly 20 million hectares
of local natural forest resources.
In
2002 alone, 240,000 hectares of trees were planted in the
province.
Zhang said they would continue to work hard for protecting the
local forest resources. They would also beef up the protection of
the grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for the creation of a
"green ecological belt on the upper reaches of the Yangtze
River."
For this purpose, Zhang said he and Rao Dasi, another NPC deputy
and head of Garze Prefecture, will jointly put forward a proposal
at the NPC session.
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2003)
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