China, Slovenia Cooperate to Rehabilitate Mountainous Regions

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 28, 2003

China, Slovenia Cooperate to Rehabilitate Mountainous Regions

Chinese and Slovenian experts are working in cooperation on two projects to find new ways to develop and restore the environment of southwestern China's eroded limestone regions.

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Chinese and Slovenian experts are working in cooperation on two projects to find new ways to develop and restore the environment of southwestern China's eroded limestone regions.

The two projects are the second phase to revitalize and re-cultivate karst regions, areas featured eroded limestone geology that results in numerous caves and fissures, generally unsuitable for intensive agriculture.

Plans include introducing environmentally friendly systems for animal breeding and research on cave environments.

The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology has listed the projects for cooperation between the Chinese and Slovenian governments.

Both China and Slovenia boast a large area of karst mountainous regions.

In China, karst mountainous regions extend from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, where local residents have on the whole remained needy due to serious soil erosion and a fragile ecological system.

Guilin, a well-known scenic city in Guangxi region, has been selected as the site for implementation of the program, said an official from the science and technology bureau of Guilin city.

Under the program, which will be carried out in three years from 2003 to 2006, beef farms in Guilin will be used as fields for experiments where experts from Slovenia will use their successful experience in developing farming and animal husbandry in karst mountainous areas.

Local farms in karst areas will become three-dimensional ecological agricultural demonstration zones featuring animal rearing, scientific research and ecological restoration.

So far, approximately 14.7 hectares of herding grass and trees have been grown for the program, said the official, who noted that animals such as cattle, sheep and horses would be reared for scientific research.

The research on cave environmental system will be focusing on changes in cave environment caused by tourists and will provide the basis for future environmental protection and scientific administration in cave tourism, said Chen Weihai, an associate research fellow with the Guilin-based Lithology and Geology Institute of Chinese Academy of Geology.

China is one of the leading countries in the world where caves abound and in Guangxi alone, there are 100,000 caves.

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