Ten percent of China's desert-encroached land has been transformed so far, with desertification suspension working to reshape the ecological environment and in some places improve it noticeably, according to sources from the State Forestry Administration.

Head of the Office for Sand Control and Prevention under the State Forestry Administration, Liu Tuo says that the present work of sand prevention and control is being expertly carried out in China and some large-scale projects have made great improvements to desertification suspension and transformation. For example, the Beijing-Tianjin sand and wind-breaking project and the fourth phase of the project for building shelter-forest systems in three northern areas (north, northwest and northeast China) are pushing forward steadily. The two huge projects cover 85 percent of China's desert-encroached land, and are part of a scheme to transform 190,000 square kilometers over 10 years, about 37 percent of China's desert-encroached land. The state has invested about 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) spent accumulatively on the two projects and 3.81 million hectares have been transformed from desertification.

After implementation (over three years), vegetation in the concerned 'constructive' areas in the Beijing-Tianjin sand and wind-break project began to grow with the vegetation cover rate increasing by 20 percent. The general ecological situation has begun to transform favorably and some parts have even seen conspicuous ecological improvements.

Silt erosion has also been improved noticeably. For instance, the silt input in Miyun Reservoir, located in suburban Beijing, has decreased by 25,000 tons. Environmental monitoring statistics show that dust falling in Beijing in 2002 decreased by 13.2 percent from 2001. In addition, economic results of the projects have begun to be seen. Herdsmen, living in the constructive areas, are becoming free from poverty at a faster pace with annual incomes increasing 200 to 300 yuan (about US$24 to 36) on average.

The project of building shelter-forests in north, northwest and northeast China has been listed at the top of world ecological projects. The key to the project has been to transform farmland into forest network construction to enable sand control and desert prevention. Construction of the fourth phase of the project, started two years ago, has transformed 195 million mu (13 million hectares) desert-encroached land, planted forests of 21.08 million mu (1.4 million hectares), and closed hillsides of 16.5 million mu (1.1 million hectares) to facilitate afforestation.

(China.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, June 18, 2003)