Desertification prevention and treatment will take time and hard work

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for 'unremitting efforts' to halt desertification and promote sustainable economic and social development at a recently concluded meeting on desertification prevention and treatment.

Statistics show that of the 2070 counties in China, roughly 880 have been affected by desertification and more than 300 seriously. Approximately 400 million people are affected by the problem every year. Desertification causes a direct economic loss of 50 billion yuan or nearly US$7 billion each year. Beijing people remember well a day in April last year when a desert storm hit the city, leaving yellow dirt everywhere.

Although China has planted trees every year since the 1960s, the desert is expanding without any sign of stopping, according to locals.

In order to improve the environment, the Chinese government launched four major projects in 2000. The projects include the protection of natural forests, turning farmland back into forest and grazing areas to grasslands. Over the last five years, China has spent nearly 200 billion yuan improving the environment.

In 2005, for the first time, desertification momentum slowed slightly. According to a Xinhua report, desert regions around Beijing and Tianjin areas have shrunk by nearly 3 million mu (200,000 hectares).

However, due to geographical factors and illegal human activities, many forests have been damaged and the desert continues to expand.

According to Liang Baojun, the man in charge of the construction of China's northern natural forest belts, it is very important to improve the situation. Deserts in northern China account for 82.9 percent of the national desert area. Without treatment of natural forest belts, it will be difficult to control the nation's entire.

"There are 2.53 million hectares of forest in this area, but about 1 million hectares need to be consolidated," says Liang Baojun.

Deserts cover an area of 1.74 million square kilometers in China. Every year just 1200 square kilometer desert can be turned back into arable land. There is still a long way to go in desertification prevention and treatment. "Preventing desertification will take a long time and hard work," said Premier Wen Jiabao.

For the first time since the founding of New China in 1949, the State Administration of Forestry has signed a treaty on desertification prevention and treatment with 12 provinces and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp.

By People's Daily Online