CHINA: China sets up a massive tree-planting project to hold back the deserts and reduce sandstorms before the 2008 Olympic Games

China -- home to part of the Gobi desert -- has embarked upon a massive tree-planting scheme to hold back the deserts. In recent years, after severe dust storms whipped Beijing and other cities, China has taken steps to try to halt the spreading deserts, especially in its north and west where the Gobi Desert has displaced herders and farmers. Farmers in northern China's Hebei province have been encouraged to plant trees twice a year since 2005 in the hope of slowing the rate at which desertification is eating up arable and other land. Chinese officials have admitted they would never completely tame the sandstorms that plague the country every spring due to the sheer size of its sandy regions. But they did promise China would step up efforts to control the problem, adding they were confident the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing would not be affected. Part of this pledge is to plant a shelter tree belt with a total area of 458,000 square kilometres outside the capital city, including the neighbouring Hebei province. Cao Qingyao, spokesman for the State Forestry Administration said China's anti-desertification work had made major progress. "China is a country with a large area of land affected by desertification, and it has been suffering from severe sandstorms. Nearly one-fifth of its landmass has been affected by desertification. So desertification has become a big threat to our country. Sandstorms are not only bringing harm to China but also to other parts of the world. Of course China is one of the sources of sandstorms, and it is also one of the victims," said Cao. Desertification of the country's west and Mongolian steppes has made spring sandstorms worse in recent years, reaching as far away as South Korea and Japan and turning rain and snow yellow. A persistent drought in northern parts of China has only added to the problem, sucking moisture from the soil and making it more easily picked up by the wind. 46-year-old Zhang Chuntao, a local farmer, believed the trees they were planting have helped ease the situation. "There used to be sand everywhere. After we planted these trees, it has become much better. There is only dust in the wind, no sand any more," said Zhang. Farmer Li Jin was proud of himself for being able to plant 61 trees in one day. "(We plant trees) to combat sandstorms, because the situation has become worse in recent years. Meanwhile, we would like to bring some green to our homeland," said Li. China's State Council, or cabinet, said last year that by 2010 the country would establish "clear improvements" in key areas, and by 2020 half of the country's desertified land that can be repaired would have been. A U.N. study issued in 2005 warned that a deteriorating environment, including encroaching deserts, could drive about 50 million Chinese from their homes by 2010.

ITN Source | April 13, 2007

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