广播听力: Stronger Anti-Desertification Efforts Urged in China

Desertification, a global concern, is also looming large in China as deserts account for more than a quarter of its total land area.

As part of global anti-desertification efforts, the country is being urged to adopt sustainable economic and social development programs to curb land degradation.

Zhang Cheng has the details.

About 400 million Chinese people, including those living in Beijing, are regularly threatened by sandstorms, a key indicator of desertification.

The country's desertification problem has mainly plagued its northern regions.

Liu Zhiyan is an environmental researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"China's desertification is first caused by natural factors, such as scarce rainfall and long-standing drought in some regions. But more importantly, excessive human activities, especially farming and mining, have caused widespread damage to the vegetation."

The State Forestry Administration says deserts occupy 2.6 million square kilometers of China's land area. Of that, more than 500,000 square kilometers is reversible. The country has set a target of recovering half that area by 2020.

The Forestry Administration says the central budget will earmark 30 billion U.S. dollars to combat desertification and land degradation in the next ten years.

Liu Zhiyan says the government should also plan economic and social development on the basis of observing environmental sustainability.

"We should thoroughly investigate the carrying capacity of population and industries of a particular region. Based on the results of that investigation, we should accordingly locate towns and industries to realize the sustainability of local environments."

Mohamadou Mansour N'Diaye, a senior official responsible for implementing the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, says it's crucial for China to come up with comprehensive anti-desertification strategies.

"China is a very big place. It's not only about water management. It's also about sustainable land management. On the case of China, it's also about the population dynamic that should be somehow managed that such a dynamic will not jeopardize achievements in land degradation combating."

The official says the United Nations is actively coordinating global anti-desertification efforts and has launched the Decade for Deserts and the fight against desertification.

According to the UN, desertification affects 25 percent of the Earth's terrestrial land mass. The problem threatens the livelihoods of more than one billion people in some 100 countries.

For CRI, I'm Zhang Cheng.