Manmade forests have been planted on 580,000 hectares in the past five years, forming many oases across the arid Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwest China.

To date, 90 percent of the 3.3 million hectares of farmland in Xinjiang are lined with forest belts. The rate of land covered by forest in Xinjiang has risen from 1.03 percent 20 years ago to the current 1.92 percent.

Aksu Prefecture, an area frequented by sandstorms, has organized 26 tree-planting campaigns since 1986. Some 640,000 local people have built 1,100 water projects, dug 250 km of canals and planted 3 million fruit trees.

Aziguli, a woman of Uygur nationality, said: "When I planted my first tree 16 years ago at Kalpin, a small county in southern Xinjiang bordering the Tarim Basin, the region was a barren land. Now the saplings I planted have grown into big trees and the region has turned into an oasis."

Zhu Zheng, an Aksu official, said the prefecture would increase forested areas to 3,666 hectares by 2005 and create a 200-km-long forest belt along the Taklimakan Desert.

Thanks to the afforestation drive, the number of days per year affected by sandstorms in the region have been reduced by 6.5 days and the average wind speed has also dropped.

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2002)