Shelterbelt in N.E. China Helps Fight DesertificationA forest shelterbelt network which has been established in northeast China's Jilin province has helped decrease land threatened by desertification from 7.3 million hectares in the 1970s to 2.53 million hectares.The province launched four major shelterbelts projects at the beginning of the 1990s. In the past eight years, the province planted 120,000 hectare of trees, increasing the province's forest coverage from 10.3 percent to 12.4 percent. Desertification is believed to be one of the major environmental problems around the globe, threatening the lives of some 900 million people. In China, about 15.9 percent of the total land area is hit by desertification, and desertification is growing by 2,000 sq. km a year. |
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