China Claims Limited Success In Fight Against Desertification

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"The latest monitoring results show that desertification and desert land areas in China have shrunk for the first time since the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949, but there will still be a severe situation for the prevention and control, said Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration on June 14.

The State Forestry Administration made the third nationwide survey on desertification and desert land from November 2003 to April 2005. The results show that China has nearly 2.64 million square kilometers of desertification land by the end of 2004, accounting for 27.46 per cent of the country's territory, and a total of 1.74 million square kilometers of desert land, covering 18.12 per cent. Compared with 1999, 37,924 and 6,416 square kilometers of the land areas were reduced respectively. The deputy director said, "This shows that the conditions of desertification and desert land have come under the stage of the "balance between reclamation of desert and destruction" from "destruction above reclamation of desert".

The Chinese government made two surveys on desertification in 1994 and 1999 respectively. Zhu Lieke said, "In fact, the desertification and desert land have started to shrink since 2000. Take the desert land for example. The annual expansion area of 3,463 square kilometers by the end of last century has been turned to the annual reduction area of 1,283 square kilometers."

Specialists say aside from natural factors such as dry weather that cause land desertification, the main factor is the unreasonable human activities, namely over-farming, overgraze, denudation and abuse of water resources."

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http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200506/15/eng20050615_190445.html