China needs 300 years to reclaim deserts

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Jan 5, 2011

China needs 300 years to reclaim deserts

Progress made, but long way to go to recover salvageable land: Official

By Ho Ai Li, China Correspondent

Labourers going for a break after planting grass on the fringe of a desert in Minqin county, in north-west Gansu province, in an attempt to reduce desertification last month. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

BEIJING: China has made some progress in slowing the loss of land to deserts, but forestry officials said yesterday that it could take hundreds of years to reclaim areas already swallowed by sand.

From 2005 to 2009, the country reduced the area claimed by deserts by 1,717 sq km, two and a half times the size of Singapore, on average each year.

But at that rate, China has a long way to go to recover areas that could still be salvaged, said an official.

'Assuming that we treat 1,717 sq km a year, I've calculated that we'd need about 300 years,' said Mr Liu Tuo, who heads the forestry authority's bureau that fights desertification.

By the end of 2009, China had desertified 2.62 million sq km, or 27.3 per cent, of the land area found largely in its north-west.

'The trends of desertification have not been fundamentally reversed,' said Mr Zhu Lieke, deputy administrator of the forestry body, when releasing the results of a survey on the degradation of dryland, the fourth such study. 'Our country has the largest affected areas worldwide.'

In places such as south-western Sichuan province and the lower reaches of the Tarim River in southern Xinjiang, desert land has expanded because of overgrazing, a lack of rain, the haphazard clearing of land for farming and the poor use of water resources, he noted.

In Tibet, as well as in neighbouring Qinghai province, the situation has improved slightly, but remains a challenge, said Mr Liu.

Climate change would also aggravate the problem, he said, noting that studies suggest a direct link between a rise in temperature and increased desertification.

Thus, China has launched several projects, including a plan to restore 40 million ha of affected land by 2030 through reforestation.

But more money and greater efforts by the local governments are needed in order to realise the goal, said Mr Liu.

On a rosier note, forestry officials have claimed some progress in taming soil loss from wind erosion.

This has been reduced significantly in key areas including Beijing and Tianjin, the forestry body said, citing figures from its five-year survey.

Compared with 2001, soil loss from wind erosion has been reduced by 44 per cent, or 520 million tonnes, it said, adding that the effect of sandstorms has been mitigated.

But sandstorms are still relatively common in the Chinese capital Beijing: early last year, China's northern areas were hit 15 times by storms, compared with 14 times in 2009.

These storms have not just hit mainland China, but also Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

Sandstorms are natural occurrences and could never be eliminated, said Mr Liu.

'Currently we can't control air currents or strong winds,' he said. 'But what we can control is the source of the sand.'

hoaili@sph.com.sg