Xilin Gol League in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has relocated about 40,250 herdsmen to better habitats.

The migration will help relieve about 270 million Mu (33.33 million hectares) of pastures from overgrazing.

The project was launched in 2001 to protect and restore certain pastures. Rural areas have been returning farmland to grassland to counteract the environmental degeneration across the prairie. The degeneration has been caused not only by overgrazing, but also droughts and environmental changes.

"I raised two cows which provide me a stable monthly income, which is much better than when I raised 40 sheep in the overgrazed pastures, where the sheep could barely find enough feed," said Gemb, aged 53, one of the herdsmen relocated to a newly-built village in the League.

The measures have been in place for the past four years. The height of the full-grown grasses measures 20 cm in the protected areas, 6.5 cm higher than the previous figures.

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2005)