Yunnan Turns More Farmland into Woodland and GrasslandSouthwest China's Yunnan Province will spend 117 million yuan (14 million U.S. dollars) on a State project to turn more farmland into woodland and grassland this year, according to the provincial forestry department.The project will be carried out in Zhongdian, Heqing, Huize, Lijiang, Yuanmou, Xundian, Yiliang and Lanping counties as well as in the Dongchuan District of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. The eight counties and Dongchuan District will plant over 53, 300 hectares of trees and grass this year. The province will give a total 30 million kilograms of grain to farmers who have donated their farmland. The project was part of the program launched by the Chinese government to curb serious soil erosion in its western region -- a result of excessive felling of trees and farming. The program requires all provinces and autonomous regions in western China, including Yunnan, to turn all the fields at hillsides with a grade of 25 degrees into woodland or grassland. Statistics show that Yunnan has 800,000 hectares of sloping fields, or 12.5 percent of the province's total arable land. Yunnan turned 50,000 hectares of farmland to forest and grassland in 1999. The province plans to turn 600,000 hectares of sloping farmland into forest and grassland between 2000 and 2010. Yunnan, one of China's biggest forest areas, is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze, Zhujiang and Lancang rivers. |
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