China's Worst Erosion Being Put Under Control
5/25/99
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Title: China's Worst Erosion Being Put Under Control
Source: Xinhua
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: May 25, 1999
GUIYANG (May 26) XINHUA - Bijie Prefecture in southwest China's
Guizhou Province was once the worst eroded area in China, but it has
brought the serious erosion problem under control with financial
assistance from the central government, the United Nation's World
Food Program, and the World Bank.
The 26,800-square-kilometer prefecture is located in the Wumeng
Mountainous area, where, for decades, there was severe soil erosion
that caused catastrophic mud-slides. There were 93 in the '70s that
killed 387 people and over 4,000 head of livestock and damaged more
than 25,000 houses.
In 1988, when the government set up a pilot zone to deal with
poverty, the forest coverage in Bijie was as low as 5.8 percent,
compared with 15 percent in 1949. For the past decade, local people
have made a strenuous effort to change the barren lands and to plant
trees and grass, and 1.93 billion yuan has been used for the purpose,
100 million yuan of that from the UNWFP and the World Bank.
The forest coverage in Bijie is now 18.97 percent and 296,000
hectares of trees and 444,000 hectares of grass have been planted
there.
The project has curbed the decades-old soil erosion and has brought
better incomes to villagers who have benefited from planting economic
crops like mushrooms, medicinal herbs, and wild vegetables.