China plans to bring its growing land desertification under control
by 2010 through massive restoration of vegetation across the
country, an official of the Desertification Prevention Center of
the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said Saturday.
Deputy director of the center, Luo Bing, said China has launched
three major programs to curb desertification, one of the most
serious environmental problems facing the increasingly sandy
country.
Luo made the remarks at a seminar held on the sidelines of a
national agricultural technological fair, in Xi'an, capital of
Shaanxi Province in northwest China.
Earlier, SFA Director Zhou Shengxian said a total of 1.743 million
square kilometers of land, or 18.2 percent of China's total land
area, has become seriously degraded and sandy, and it is expanding
by 3,436 square kilometers per year.
Luo said the three major programs are the fourth-phase construction
of a lengthy windbreak across northern China, afforestation
programs along the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, the country's two
longest, and projects in China's wet south.
China has earmarked billions of dollars for the projects so
far.
The total size of sandy land in China is expected to decrease as a
result of the nationwide effort to curb desertification, Luo said,
adding that by 2050, all of the seriously degraded and sandyareas
suitable for restoration will be harnessed if technology andfunding
allow.
(People's Daily November 10, 2002)