Green Great Wall

　　China’s ambitious campaign to combat desertification with afforestation

　　Watching a large number of poplar trees in the area slowly dying， their branches turning bare， is both worrying and heartbreaking for 59-year-old Yuan Miaozhi， a forestry official in Zhangbei County， north China’s Hebei Province， especially since she planted many of the trees herself when she was a child.

　　The daughter of a forestry official， Yuan answered the call of a local afforestation program and started planting trees with her father at the age of 9. Since Yuan’s hometown lies on the edge of the Gobi Desert， one of the largest desert regions in Asia， any trees that they plant can help protect the local land from soil erosion as well as reduce occurrences of sandstorms reaching Beijing， which is only 200 km away.

　　Zhangbei is under the jurisdiction of Zhangjiakou City， which has been identified by the Ministry of Environmental Protection as lying on two of the routes that bring sandstorms to Beijing and neighboring Tianjin. It is also one of Zhangjiakou’s four counties located in the Bashang area， which has also been historically plagued by sandstorms due to limited water resources and poor soil conditions.

　　At the end of the 1940s， the part of the Bashang area under the jurisdiction of Zhangjiakou had only 6.4-square-km worth of surviving primitive birch and poplar forests in an area of 13，800 square km. After a spate of projects to plant large-scale windbreaks， trees and shrubs planted in such a way as to stop wind blowing freely through an area， forest coverage in this area rose to 7.4 percent by 1977 and has since jumped to 22.4 percent.

　　For decades， China has made afforestation efforts to attempt to curb the desertification of areas around the Gobi Desert as it expands， and to help fight global warming. The country’s nationwide forest coverage reached by 20.36 percent in 2008， up from 13.92 percent in 1992 and it is projected to hit 21.66 percent by 2015， according to figures from the State Forestry Administration (SFA).

　　The SFA also announced in mid-July that China is to spend 212.9 billion yuan ($34.9 billion) by 2020 to fund afforestation projects， with plans to increase the country’s forest coverage by 4.1 percent.

　　Seeking support

　　During the early stages of tree-planting projects in Zhangbei， poplar was settled on as the best choice of tree to use.

　　“Poplars can be rooted easily using cuttings and they grow quickly， making them ideal for local farmers to plant，” Yuan said.

　　Wang Jinhuan， Deputy Director of Zhangbei’s Forestry Bureau， said that out of the county’s 1，090 square km of windbreaks， around 670 square km consist of pines， elms and sea-buckthorns that were planted after the conversion of some farmlands into forests started in 2000， while all of the remaining 420 square km of trees are all poplars.

　　According to statistics from the local government， the annual number of gales hitting the county， the average speed of winds and the number of days with sandstorms have all decreased dramatically while the county’s relative humidity and frost-free periods have grown substantially. These factors would indicate that Zhangbei’s natural environment has improved enormously as a result of the forestation programs that have been implemented over the past four decades.

　　Beijing has been long plagued by sandstorms that hit the city every spring， prompting many to wear face masks amid the red and brown gloom. The sand makes its way down from the deserts in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region， including the Gobi， and can often block the sun for hours at a time. The earliest records of sandstorms in Beijing date back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)， when historical documents tell of a storm in 1367 that lasted for 43 consecutive days.

　　According to the China Meteorological Administration， in terms of the length of sandstorms annually， Beijing was hit by the worst sandstorms in the 1950s. Over the past four decades， the days of dusty weather in Beijing have been dropping annually in general. This could be attributed to the successful shelterbelt programs conducted by people like Yuan.

　　However， such promising reductions in sandstorms affecting and sourced from Bashang could be undercut by the large-scale death of poplar trees in counties with manmade forests. Wang told Beijing-based Legal Evening News that most of Bashang’s poplar forests were planted in the 1960s and 1970s and around 30 percent of them are dying or dead at this time. Forestry experts have identified dwindling underground water resources and trees’ natural aging as the main causes.

　　Lu Mengzhu， a renowned poplar expert from the Research Institute of Forestry of the Chinese Academy of Forestry， told Beijing Review that poplar trees living in harsh environments will often die prematurely. He said that insect infestations used to be a major cause of death for poplar trees in north China until a team he headed successfully developed genetically insect-resistant poplars a few years ago.

　　Yuan began to notice the withering of poplars in large numbers back in 2003， the year she was elected a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC)， the country’s top legislature.

　　During her two five-year terms as a lawmaker， Yuan submitted motions at every annual NPC full session calling for subsidies to be granted to replace the dead trees in Bashang. Since her second term began in 2008， she started to hand in her proposals and advice to the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) as Bashang’s forest update programs were being hindered by lack of funding. All four counties in Bashang are part of the national poverty reduction program and the local governments could not afford to replace all of the dead trees without support.

　　Yuan’s calls have received attention in media outlets and attracted the attention of various government departments. In April， the Hebei Provincial Government launched a trial project for revitalizing 6.67 square km of poplar forests in Bashang： replacing dead trees with Scots pines and sea-buckthorns and replacing dying trees with their own branch cuttings. The provincial government paid 4 million yuan ($656，000) for the project while the remaining 6 million yuan ($984，000) was raised by local governments.

　　In early September， Wang told The Beijing News that the project showed promising results in Zhangbei as 95 percent of newly planted trees had survived and some poplar cuttings had grown to an average of 1 meter tall.

　　The NDRC has also conducted research so as to draw up a program to fund the replacement of trees in Bashang， which is scheduled to begin soon.

　　Large-scale undertaking

　　Poplar forests in Zhangbei are part of China’s ambitious Three-North Shelterbelt Program， also known as the Green Great Wall， which is intended to slow the expansion of the country’s northern deserts.

　　The program began in 1978 with the aim of increasing forest coverage from 5 to 15 percent across an area of 4.07 million square km. Once completed in 2050， the shelterbelt will measure 4，480 km from east to west， and will stretch 560 and 1，460 km from north to south at its narrowest and widest sections. Its total area will amount to 4.07 million square km， which equates to about 42.4 percent of China’s total land area.

　　The program is creating windbreaks in 551 counties across 13 provinces， autonomous regions and municipalities in China’s north， northwest and northeast. In the two decades before the initiation of the program， more than 4，000 square km of farmland in these regions was overtaken by deserts， while a further 8，670 square km suffered from reduced production due to sandstorms. Hundreds of reservoirs were also depleted and turned into desert over the period.

　　When the program is finished， it is estimated that it will directly benefit over 90 percent of the near half a million square km of the country’s land whose desertification can be potentially curbed or reversed.

　　The latest data from the SFA showed that， as of the end of 2012， forest coverage in the treated areas had increased from the 5.05 percent in 1977 to 12.4 percent.

　　According to Xinhua News Agency， by the end of August this year， the Three-North Shelterbelt Program had successfully planted and cultivated forests totaling 267，000 square km.

　　The program launched its fifth， and the most recent， of eight planned phases， in 2012， which has three primary goals： creating another 100，000 square km of forests to boost local forest coverage to 12 percent by 2020； controlling the worsening desertification in 30 percent of at-risk farmland； and slowing or stopping topsoil erosion in half of the farmland at risk in the targeted areas.

　　Zhang Yongli， Deputy Director of the SFA， said that the program’s specific goals and ethos have changed with the times to reflect the changing needs of the country. According to him， initially， focus was on planting as many trees as possible to reduce the speed of winds blowing out from the deserts. However， in the early 1990s， the SFA suggested that windbreaks with better economic returns be created so as to give local farmers better incentives to plant trees. In recent years， the SFA has advocated combining efforts to build new shelterbelts with the building of different types of agricultural bases.

　　Zhang said that thanks to the Three-North Shelterbelt Program， local farmers started to report consecutive high-yield harvests， local needs for wood have been satisfied， locally produced fruit and nuts have been exported or sold to other parts of China， and the tourism industry in the region has been developed. All these have helped to enrich the lives of the local people.

　　“The program has also improved local farmers’ living environment and accelerated the improvement of infrastructure in the countryside as well as the urbanization process，” Zhang told Xinhua.

　　Fighting the sands

　　Growing trees in areas prone to droughts and sandstorms and keeping them alive is never easy. Nobody knows this better than 68-year-old Shi Guangyin， who considers battling desertification his life-calling. Born in a sand-struck village in Dingbian County， northwest China’s Shaanxi Province， Shi has struggled his way through sandstorms since he was a child. Haunting memories of a tragedy he witnessed when he was 7 spurred him to assume the role of an ecological guardian.

　　Shi was herding sheep with a 5-year-old boy in the neighborhood one day when a sudden sandstorm swept them away. Shi was submerged in sand so deep it was days before his dad found him nearly 30 km away from their home， but his friend was never found again. “When I was saved， I decided that when I grew up the only thing I wanted to do was to prevent sandstorms，” Shi recalled.

　　In 1984， the government introduced a policy that encourages afforestation efforts undertaken by individuals. Shi responded immediately and became the first contractor to plant trees in a 2-square-km barren desert land. Shi went to nearly every door in his village to recruit more to join him. That year， he formed a team with seven other rural families and sold all his livestock， all his family’s valuables， and secured two bank loans to raise money to buy saplings. Finally， 85 percent of the trees they planted survived.

　　Encouraged by the initial success， Shi founded a company in 1985 to specialize in afforesting degraded lands.

　　In 1986， Shi’s company were contracted more than 1，000 plots of barren land that covered a combined 39 square km. Among them， one area known as Langwosha， which covers 4 square km， was the most difficult to afforest. Shi spent a whole spring with his team， but high winds killed 90 percent of the saplings.

　　The next spring saw the same failures. Two defeats lowered their morale， but Shi refused to lose his resolve. He persuaded the team not to give up and at the same time turned to forestry professionals to remake planting strategies.

　　In the spring of 1988， Shi and his team took on Langwosha one last time. This time， they put up an 800-km-long sand-proof screen to protect the saplings and put down grass to stop the sand on the ground flowing as freely. With 80 percent of saplings surviving， Langwosha had finally been afforested.

　　To date， Shi’s company has dealt with 167 square km of barren land and successfully transformed 90 percent of it into lush green forest covers.

　　Trees planted by Shi’s company are estimated to be worth 120 million yuan ($19.7 million) in total. His company also owns a potato breeding base， livestock farms， a landscaping business and three recreational centers. Shi was honored as an “outstanding planter in the Asia-Pacific region” by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in 2002.