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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 22, 2002

Great Achievements in Soil Ecology Protection Work

The second national survey on soil erosion released by the Ministry of Water Resources at the ongoing press conference shows China has made great achievements in soil ecology protection by strengthening the work of prevention and supervision and improving the soil situation in some areas by effective measures conducted in a comprehensive way for many years.


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The second national survey on soil erosion released by the Ministry of Water Resources at the ongoing press conference shows China has made great achievements in soil ecology protection by strengthening the work of prevention and supervision and improving the soil situation in some areas by effective measures conducted in a comprehensive way for many years. However, China is still facing tough task on soil erosion since the area of water and wind erosion is enlarging in some western provinces and areas.

The second survey highlights the following trends as compared to the first one launched in 1990:

  • The area suffered from soil erosion is shrinking, with a decrease from 3.67 million sq. km to 3.56 million sq. km.

  • The area of water erosion is lessening, with a reduction from 1.79 million sq. km to 1.65 million sq. km.

  • Things are different in the eastern, central and western areas. For the eastern area, it's from 130 thousand sq. km down to 90 thousand sq. km; For the central area, from 62 thousand sq. km down to 49 thousand sq. km.; For the western area, from 1.04 million sq. km up to 1.07 million sq. km.

  • The area of wind erosion is slightly enlarging, with an increase from 1.88 million sq. km to 1.91 million sq. km. The measures to control the area of wind erosion haven't been taken into effect.



    Thanks to the effective implementation of the Soil and Water Conservation Law over the past 10 years, protection efforts of land at risk from the potentially degradation was safeguarded, Chen Lei, vice-minister of water resources said recently.

    Soil erosion causes the loss of 5 billion tons of fertile soil each year and damages an estimated 70,000 hectares of cultivated land throughout the country.

    China has listed erosion-control as one of the state's top priorities since 1991, in a bid to turn more barren land into green areas.

    Chen said that since 1998, the area of land improved by the measures amounted to some 50,000 square kilometers each year. >>details



    by PD Online Staff Yang Ruoqian

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