Areas suffering from soil erosion at the reservoir area of the Three Gorges project are decreasing at an annual rate of one percent.

A remote sensing survey has shown the area of erosion at the reservoir area has fallen from 38,800 square kilometers in the mid-1980s to 30,000 square kilometers.

It indicated that serious soil erosion had been effectively curbed in the region, said Hu Jiajun, director of the Yangtze River Soil and Water Conservation Bureau.

The Three Gorges reservoir area covers 21 counties and cities in central China's Hubei Province and Chongqing Municipality with a total area of 58,000 square kilometers. Soil erosion is serious in the region because of the hilly landscape, exposed mantle rock and much rainfall.

As the ecological environment exercises a direct influence on the normal operation of the Three Gorges reservoir, the Chinese government has spent 500 million yuan (US$60 million) in special funds to curb soil erosion in the region since the 1980s.

The central and local authorities have also injected huge money into creating a tree belt and converting poor farmland into forest since late 1990s.

As a result of those measures, the area covered by forest around the reservoir area expanded by 2.2 million hectares in the past two decades, according to Hu.

The central government will allocate another two billion yuan (US$240 million) in the coming years to improve eroded lands, Hu said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2003)