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Grim Race to Save China's Food Stores

by Li Can and Yuan Jiang
Afresh green has begun to reclaim a huge swath of denuded mountains and hills along the Yangtze River.
In rugged Langzhong County of Sichuan Province, southwest China, mountains and hills covering a total of 15.000 hectares have been carpeted with greenery. The county has announced that all the barren mountains and wasteland suitable for afforestation tn Its area will have been covbred with young forests by 1992
This county started the afforestation drive In 1989. and the progress means It will fulfil its 12-year afforestation plan in four years, according to the county forestry bureau. In all. 60 counties have made similar progress.
Running 4.500 kilometres from west to east, this new great Green Wall' is the second giant tree belt project In the country, after the one al ready taking shape across northern China.
The Yangtze is the longest river In China. The river basin, which embraces the most fer tile and developed parts of China, nourishes one-third of the population.
Wanton felling of trees and reclamation of sloping land — pushed by population growth — have led to soil erosion, mud and rock flows and floods that alternate with drought.
The Yangtze Is the lifeline for one-third of China's agri cultural output. In its basin lie densely-populated plains which are China's famous gra naries : the Chengdu plain in southwest China, the Jiang shan plain in centra) China, the plains around Dongtlng and Boyang lakes and the Yangtze delta.
Many Industrial giants — the cities of Shanghai, Wuxi, Nanjing. Wuhan and Chongqing — stand on the Yangtze s river banks. The Yangtze basin also produces 40 per cent of the nation's annual industrial output value The river itself car ries three-fourths of the na tlonal inland river cargo ton-nage
In the 198Os a number of scientists have warned against the danger of the Yangtze be coming like the Yellow River The second largest river in China, the Yellow River has been known as a source of disasters for its recurrent floods and droughts.
Along the Yangtze River, the area under soil erosion has In creased alarmingly in recent years, from 360.000 sq km in the 1 95Os to 560,000 sq km in the 1980s.
The Jlngjiang section of the riverbed In western Hubei province, wheje the river surges from the famed Three Gorges to broad plains, is choked with silt and now rises ten metres above the land outside the dykes.
The most serious soil erosion Is found in the upper and middle reaches where the Yangtze and its tributaries flow across highlands and mountainous terrain. In some mountain areas, heavy rainfall has washed away the thin layer of topsoil and exposed rocks underneath, making farming impossible.
If nothing Is done to avert this destructive process, losses will be irretrievable, says Gao Dezhan. Minister of Forestry.
He calls the regreentng of the Yangtze an "urgent" pro Ject. The project will Improve the environment and benefit this and coming generations,' he says.
Started in 1990. the re-greening covers the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River The first of two stages, to be completed in year 2000. Involves Yangtze River The first of two stages, to be com pleted in year 2000. involves 145 counties.
Millions of farmers, carrying pickaxes and shovels, turn out tn afforestation drives every spring and autumn. In all, 1.7 million hectares of denuded mountains and wasteland were planted with young
trees by March 1991, accounting for one-fourth of the planned afforestation area for the 11-year programme.
Liu Menglong, the Ministry of Forestry's deputy director tn charge of the project, says progress has been faster than that across northern China. The climate along the Yangtze Is milder and more humid and more experience has also been gained, he says.
"About two billion tree saplings are needed for plant Ing the projected shelter belts every year," Mr Liu says. To ob tain such a large number of saplings, tree nurseries have been set up for each county, township and village involved.
In addition to the planting of trees, large tracts of depleted forests have been cordoned off for natural regenera tion Aerial seeding has been carried out in remote, se eluded mountain areas In Shaanxi. Jiangxi. Gansu and Hunan provinces.
Apart from firs — which will provide construction timber — bamboo, tea bushes, fruit, mu) berry and tung-oil trees that give quicker economic re turns are grown Shrubs are also planted to provide fuelwood.
The policy is : "Whoever plants owns the trees.” The number of workdays put in by each former is kept on record and the incomes of the forests are to be distributed according to the workdays contributed by each farmer. Farmers own small groves near their homes.
The whole project ts estl-
mated to cost 3.3 billion yuan (US$620 million). About 30 per cent of the cost 1s being financed by the central gov ernment, another 20 per cent by local governments, and the rest borne by farmers, mainly in the form of labour investment.
Incomes from the forests are expected to be enough to cover the whole cost two years after the completion of the first-stage project at the end of this century
By 2000, tree coverage In the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze Is planned to Increase from the present 6.6 million hectares to 13 million hectares, accounting for 40 per cent of the total land area Plans are being drawn up for the second stage of the project which is estimated to take another 20 to 30 years.
The greening of the Yangtze valley will not only curb soil erosion but also reduce the amount of silt washed into the reservoirs of hydroelectric power stations on the Yangtze and Its tributaries, Including the planned Yangtze Gorge Project, one of the largest In the world - Depthnews Asia