Abstract:

Sandy desertification in China is very severe, endangering the living space of the Chinese nation. Annual rate of desertified land expansion is 3 436 km², equaling to a medium_size county in China. At present, desertified land area amounts to 1.74×10⁶km², accounting for 18% of the total land territory, or 10 times of the area of Guangdong Province. 100 million population, 2.4×10⁴ villages and townships are directly affected, with an annual direct economic loss of RMB 54 billion yuan. The causes of sandy desertification expansion are mainly attributed by natural factors and human activities. Overgrazing of?grassland, indiscriminate reclamation of ecologically sensitive lands for?grain production, deforestation and excessive fuelwood collection, digging of herbal plants and irrational use of water resources are the five main human factors causing sandy desertification, being the results of the human being's pressure on ecological environment. Concluded from the previous experiences as well as lessons learned since 1949 in combating desertification, desertification combating must deal with the root causes of sandy desertification, focusing on human centered measures and comprehensive approaches as key solution. The control activities should fully take into account local farmers and herders' requirements of living and development, which should be the basic consideration, and take comprehensive measures combining forestry, agriculture,?grassland, water resources, rural energy, ecological migration, etc. Desertification combating should take protection as the first priority and keep prevention as the key measure. Different types of land should be treated with different policies accordingly, and “Three Shelterbelts” should be set up to contain land desertification. As for substantial measures, firstly, the natural vegetation in the 8 Deserts and 4 Desertified lands should be protected, with sand_fixing desert species, especially dry-land-dependent arbor, shrubbery, such as Populus driversifolia, Haloxylon ammodendron. Protected; secondly, large_scale forest and?grassland shelterbelts should be set up, according to the nature of different kinds of damages; thirdly, desertified croplands should be converted to forests, desertified pastoral areas should be enclosed for regeneration, oasis croplands should be protected with optimized forest shelterbelts. Quality and fund management are key to implementing national sandy desertification combating projects. The check and acceptance measures should be strengthened, and reimbursement management system should be applied. Quality monitoring and control should be executed through the whole process of projects, as for each phase from designing, planning to implementing. The responsibility system of?government officials should be applied. The tasks, objectives, responsibilities, cash and food subsidies should be allocated to each household, and contracts be signed with them. The bottom-up supervising system should be set up through the means of inspection-and-check cards and cash-and-food allocation cards. The responsibility system composed of administrative leaders, technical heads and farmer/herder responsibility rules should be set up, so that obligations and rights, rewards and punishments are clarified. China's course of combating desertification will surely achieve its ambitious objectives.

Key words: Sandy desertification, Sand control and management