Read at : Google Alert – desertification
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/eastasia/view/1014326/1/.html
Desertification one of the challenges faced by China
By Channel NewsAsia’s East Asia Bureau Chief Maria Siow | Posted: 29 October 2009 0031 hrs
NINGXIA Province, China: The desert has been taking over large areas of China, and it has become one of the biggest environmental challenges faced by the country.
In China’s northeastern province of Ningxia, desert accounts for 60 per cent of its land area. But this has not always been the case. Experts said desertification has cost China billions of dollars.
In various parts of China, vast tracts of farmland have since been transformed into deserts. In fact, years of deforestation, logging as well as poor farming techniques have resulted in the expansion of China’s desert at a rate of 2,000 square kilometres a year. That is almost three times the size of Singapore.
Climate change and overgrazing have also contributed to desertification. And Ningxia is not the only province affected. The desert has also taken over to large parts of Gansu and Inner Mongolia.
Countless families have been forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods. Wang Youde and his family fled the region when he was 10.
He said: “When I was young, Ningxia had a few snowfalls every year. There were birds and flowers, but now they are nowhere to be found. Thirty thousand people from my hometown fled after it was covered by sand. That village completely disappeared from the face of the earth.”
Wang has since returned to his hometown. He heads a project to construct a shield that stretches for hundred of kilometres to prevent the desert from spreading further.
This is done through a simple, but labour-intensive technique of making grass patches. Straw is plaited, laid on the sand. Then plants and shrubs are grown on every patch, to fix the sand in place.
Yang Wenjun, desert worker, said: “The survival rate of these crops and shrubs is only 20 to 30 per cent, maybe 50 to 60 per cent if we get some rain. We select drought-resistant and hardy crops that can live even with little rainfall.”
The conservation area now covers over 10,000 hectares, and 1,300 hectares are added every year. But despite the hardships and under-funding, Wang and his team have no plans to give up.
(continued)
CNA/ms
