l.1 Desertification affected areas are mainly
distributed in arid, semi- arid and dry sub-humid areas in China, covering
471 countries in 18 provinces and autonomous regions in the west part of
the Northeast China, the northern part of the North China and the most
regions of the Northwest China. The area affected by desertification in
China is approximately 2.622 million sq.km, in which the 1 .607 million
sq.km of desertification land is caused by wind erosion is, the 0.205 million
sq.km by water erosion, the 0.363 million sq.km by frozen and melting processes
at cold plateau, the 0.233 million sq.km by salinization alkalization and
the 0.214 million sq.km by other factors.
1.2 The current status of desertification in
China is very serious. The total area of desertification covers 27.3% of
the total territory of China. It is estimated that the annual spreading
ratio of desertification is 2,460 sq.km and that is equal to the loss of
the area of a medium-sized county of China, 7.73 million ha of farmland
have been threatened by desertification and the land productivity decreased,
105.24 million ha of rangeland and steppe areas have been degraded, a large
amount of forests and woodlands have been deforested or degraded due to
the human and natural factors, thousands of water conservation facilities
and systems have been threatened by wind and sand hazards and the benefits
of the drainage system have been reduced, around 800 km of railways have
been barriered and thousands kin of highway have been destroyed by the
accumulation of sands. The desertification caused by water erosion ai the
transitional zone of the Loess Plateau and Ordos Plateau is very serious
and it is the source of sand silts of the Yellow River, and it is critically
eroded with amiual loss of 20,000-30,000 tones/sq.km of topsoil and the
amiual raise of the riverbed of the Yellow River is 5-10 cm. The riverbed
of the lower reach of the Yellow River has been heightened by over 10 meters
forming a "suspension river" and brings about damages to the
people's prosperity and living circumstances. The consequences of desertification
in China are concluded as follows:
---Rapid reduction of arable land and losses
of living circumstances in some feiglOflS,
---Quick decrease of the biological productivity
of the lands, the degradation of ecosystems and the destruction of biodiversity,
---Slowing down of the resources, economic and
social sustainable developments of tlie affected areas,
---Poverty in the affected areas,
---lmpacts of sand storms to the east and the
southeast parts of China.
1.3 The causes of desertification in China are
mainly climatic variation and human factors, among which human factors
are the major ones. Desertification has been accelerated by the population
growth, the pressure from economic development, poor awareness of the importance
of the protection of ecosystem, over-grazing, undue collection of fuelwoods,
deforestation and destruction of vegetation caused by reclamation on steppe,
desert steppe and rangeland, inappropriate farining system on slope and
the degradation of vegetative coverage.
1.4 The Chinese Goveri].nient has been paying
great attentions to combat desertification. Four national conferences on
combating desertification and five national conferences on soil and water
conservation have been respectively convened, the ''Three North's'' Protection
Forest System has been implemented, the national combating desertification
projects and watershed management projects have been carried out, and national
rangeland improvement or establishment projects have been conducted. About
10 million ha of afforestation aimed at combating desertification have
been planted, around 11 million ha of low yield farmlands have been protected
by windbreaks, roughly 9 million ha of degraded steppe, desert steppe and
rangelands and salinizedfalkalized lands have been improved, the ecosystem
on the Loess Plateau and other seriously affected areas have been primarily
afforested and improved, more than 90 natural reserves in deserts and desertified
areas have been established. Since the last four decades, ten faculties,
departments for combating desertification have been established in universities
and nine research institutes and more than 100 permanent experimental stations
have been facilitated. The Bureau of the ''Three North'' Protective Shelterbelts
System of the Ministry of Forestry, the institute of Desert Research ofChinese
Academy of Sciences and the Zhongwei Sand Fixation Farm of Lanzhou Railway
Bureau have been awarded as the Global 500 of Environment Protection by
U'NEP. Through long period of hard efforts to combat desertification, some
technology and successful experiences have been summarized, a series ofresearch
results have been obtained and a large amount of technicians and scientists
have been trained, all these achievements provide good guarantee to combat
desertification in future.
1.5 Due to the insufficiency funds and the pressures
on environment from population growth and poverty in the affected areas,
the desertification is still expanding. In light of the analysis of existing
status of desertification, it will be accelerated if there were no more
funds and further steps have been placed on the desertiflcation combating
in China. It is conclude that desertification in China is very serious
and its combating is the first urgent task of both Chinese Government and
people.