China Reshaping Yangtze River with TreesFarmers at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River have turned more than 70 percent of their low- yield farmland on slopes into grassland or woodland over the past 11 years, greatly improving the local ecological environment.They have given up raising crops and switched to planting trees on more than 600,000 hectares of farmland, according to Jiao Juren, director of the Water and Soil Preservation Department of the Ministry of Water Resources. A total of 1.13 million hectares of farmland disappeared on the upper reaches of the Yangtze in the period, said Jiao. China officially kicked off a water and soil preservation project for the upper reaches of the Yangtze in 1989, with more than 190 counties in seven provinces and municipalities included in the work. According to Chinese law, farmers should replace crops with trees or take other water and soil preservation measures on farmland with a slope of more than 25 degrees. Tree felling has been banned in the upper valleys of the Yangtze, China's largest river. Local governments have been upgrading the conditions for agricultural production to increase the grain output, as a way to counteract the grain loss caused by the decrease of farmland, Jiao said. For example, 26.7 hectares of high-yield farmland were allotted to 220 farmers who lost farmland in Qianxi County, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, together with a number of small water- control projects. The western region of the upper parts of the Yangtze and the Yellow River serves as a protective screen for the ecological environment in China. Soil erosion in the region has become the most serious issue in the country's environmental protection endeavor. An important move launched by the Chinese government has been to check the increasingly threatened ecological environment in the west and to achieve sustainable development in the next century. Zeng Peiyan, minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission, noted that enhancing ecological work and environmental protection is vital for the strategic development of western China. In the coming decade, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and four other provinces and autonomous regions will jointly invest 120 billion yuan (about 14.5 billion US dollars) to conserve the forests in the upper valley of the Yangtze. It is the government's goal that by 2020, the forest coverage rates on the Yangtze's upper reaches will be increased to 45 from the current 22. For example, 26.7 hectares of high-yield farmland were allotted to 220 farmers who lost farmland in Qianxi County, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, together with a number of small water- control projects. The western region of the upper parts of the Yangtze and the Yellow River serves as a protective screen for the ecological environment in China. Soil erosion in the region has become the most serious issue in the country's environmental protection endeavor. An important move launched by the Chinese government has been to check the increasingly threatened ecological environment in the west and to achieve sustainable development in the next century. Zeng Peiyan, minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission, noted that enhancing ecological work and environmental protection is vital for the strategic development of western China. In the coming decade, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and four other provinces and autonomous regions will jointly invest 120 billion yuan (about 14.5 billion US dollars) to conserve the forests in the upper valley of the Yangtze. It is the government's goal that by 2020, the forest coverage rates on the Yangtze's upper reaches will be increased to 45 from the current 22. |
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