CRI听力:China Needs More Efforts in Curbing Desertification Despite Its Progress

The State Forestry Administration has released new analysis, showing that as of the end of 2014, desertification has declined in China by just over 12-thousand square kilometers.

However, there is still some 2.6-million square kilometers of desert still covering northern China, representing around 27-percent of the country's land-mass.

State Forestry Administration deputy-Director Zhang Jianlong says strides are being made in certain areas, including greater Beijing, which has seen desertification reduced by almost 12-percent over the past 6-years.

"Compared with the fourth monitoring mission conducted in 2009, the conditions around Beijing have greatly improved when it comes to the overall control of desertification. We've managed to reduce desertification, as well as rehabilitate large portions of the capital region into useable soil."

One of the ways authorities have been attempting to reverse desertification is by establishing new tree-lines to block the winds from the Gobi Desert blowing sand into the Beijing area.

Zhang Jianlong says the next 5-years are going to present an even larger challenge for the Forestry Administration.

"During the period of the 13th 'Five-Year Plan', we've been tasked with controlling 100-thousand square kilometers of sandy land. This will require us dealing with 20-thousand square kilometers of desert per year. It's going to be a big challenge. "

He says the biggest challenge is getting farmers in China's northern grazing lands to buy-into the system.

"The problem we have with reclaiming desert lands is compounded by over-grazing and the over-use of water resources. Over the past five years, the proportion of cultivated land in deserted areas has increased by 3.6 percent. However, the proportion of cultivated land that has turned into desert has grown by 8.76 percent."

Analysis by the State Forestry Administration shows China lost 1.73 million square kilometers of useable soil to desertification over the past 5-decades.

This is roughly 18-percent of the country's total land area. However, the battle to regain arable land in China is a long-term goal.

The so-called Great Green Wall project was launched in 1978.

It involves the creation of a tree belt some 45-hundred kilometers in length running from the western reaches of Xinjiang to eastern points of Heilongjiang.

The project itself is due to be finished by 2050.

Once complete, Chinese authorities say it will be the biggest man-made carbon sponge on the planet.

For CRI, this is Li Jianhua.