The grass was always greener
- Source: Global Times
- [02:57 July 19 2010]
- Comments
However, some desertification control experts have different opinions.
The nutrition layer of prairie is only 30 to 50 centimeters that has been formed during its long history. If the layer is broken, nutrition of soil will never be the same even with afforestation,Zhang Weiguo, deputy director of Erdos Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, told the China Business Daily earlier.
Exploiting open coalmines not only destroys the plants on the prairie, but also disturbs the underground water. Seven major rivers in Hulunbeir have seen less water in recent years due to over exploitation, People's Daily reported.
Wang Xiaoyi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told People's Daily that the desertification in the prairie was not simply the herders' fault. Protecting the prairie does not only mean restrictions on herders.
We should look at desertification using a more scientific perspective because it takes place under the background of climate change and it is wrong for us to expect the natural environment of prairie change back to centuries ago,Hao Chengzhi, a researcher at the Economy Research Institute under the State Council, told the Global Times Sunday.
The government should invest more and help develop the local industry so as to at-tract herders to a new career,said Hao, who devoted himself to desertification control two decades ago.
Green efforts
Local authorities and some foreign companies have launched anti-desertification programs in recent years.
For example, the Inner Mongolia Electric Power Bureau and a Zurich-based electricity and automation technology company invested more than 1 million yuan ($146,325) in 2007 for anti-desertification plants along the high-tension transmission lines standing between Inner Mongolia and Beijing that spans 2.6 million hectares.
Yang, the deputy director of the regional development and reform commission, said funding and policy support for anti-desertification programs should be increased. He added that there is no more than 0.3 yuan being invested into each hectare of prairie in recent years.
Zhang Wanjun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science, told the Global Times that the government should help boost the local economy to improve herdsmen's life.
