China Invests Hugely to Curb Desertification in Inner Mongolia

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 22, 2002

China Invests Hugely to Curb Desertification in Inner Mongolia

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The Chinese government has invested more than 42 million yuan (about 5.1 million U.S.dollars) during the past year to curb desertification in Alxa League in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Local government sources said the amount spent on preventing desertification would double this year.

With three large deserts within its territory, Alxa League has seen a constant deterioration in its ecological environment in recent years.

During the past decade, up to 1000 square kilometers of land each year became desert in Alxa region due to adverse climate changes, rivers drying up and overgrazing.

In the four decades before 1990, only one sandstorm occurred every two years on average. However, the region saw 29 sandstorms in 2001, local officials said, which greatly damaged the local economy.

Even worse, the desertification in Alxa also seriously harmed the environment and economic growth in neighboring regions in northwest and north China.

Renowned Chinese ecologist Chen Changdu said all the deserts and Gobi areas in west China would merge if desertification was unchecked in the Alxa region, which many ecologists consider a natural protection zone against sandstorms.

The Chinese government invested a total of 25.8 million yuan to protect the natural forests and grassland in Alxa in 2001, and will make another huge investment of 490 million yuan within three years starting from 2002, to protect poplar forests, relocate residents and develop grazing bases in the region.

At present, transferring people is the main way of curbing desertification in Alxa, sources say.

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