1. Project Summary and Relationship to China's Agenda 21 The project aims to protect the ecosystem and to combat the desertification in the Alxa League of Inner Mongolia. It also plans to restore the ecological balance in the area and establish an environmental monitoring system, which will collect ecological data in the region. This project is based on programme area 16 of China's Agenda 21, and is related to programme areas 14C, 14D and 14E.
2. Background Alxa League is situated in the west part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It is an extremely dry area in the northern temperate zone, which covers a total area of 270,000 square km. It is also one of the districts with the most deserts, which account for 84,000 square km. Over 20,000 square km of which are an important ecological protective screen of the Alxa region, known as the Ejin Oasis. However, the ecology in the area is deteriorating because of human activities. Development has caused: drought in the area; the disappearance of rivers and lakes; pest destruction of grassland; ecological imbalance; and desertification. Desesrtification in the area is proceeding at a rate of 20 m per year towards the Southeast, which blocks railway lines, fills up salt lakes, destroys farmlands and washes 70 million m3 of sand into the Yellow River. It also causes sand storms during the spring which endangers northern and eastern. This bring serious disruption to the society and the economy. The damage created by the sand storms have cost the Alxa League and the surrounding provinces one billion yuan a year. In addition, 20,000 herdsmen has become ecological refugees and have been forced to relocate. The weakening of the ecosystem is caused by: deterioration of the soil quality, which reduces the productivity of grass land from 225-300 kg/hectare in the '50s to 150 kg/hectare in the '90s; weeds has grown out of control, which reduces the vegetation coverage by more than 30%; and the seasonal forest coverage from 1.13 million hectares to 0.2 million hectares. The project aims to slow down the degradation of the ecology and the desertification in the Alxa district. The project will improve the ecological environment and irrigation of the area. Through long term resource development and planning, the deterioration of the ecology of the area will be slowed down. In addition, the project will create an ecological environment for economic and social development. This project has been listed in the national and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's Ninth Five-Year Plan for economic and social development and in the Long-term Objective for the year 2010. The State Council has been concerned about the ecological degradation of the Alxa district. It organised two meetings to discuss the problem and issued two documents GR[1995] No. 59 and No. 144 entitled Minutes of Solutions to Ecological Degradation of the Alxa District. The project is the critical for land management in Inner Mongolia, economic development of the north-west area, and improvement of the ecological environment. The local governments have fought environmental degradation for forty years. They have gained valuable experiences in oasis construction, aerial sowing, closure of grasslands, man-made rainfall and water conservation. Currently, the Alxa League has a population of 170,000 with a total GDP of RMB 800 million and a revenue of RMB 100 million per year. In addition, the area has 10,000 professionals and technicians. They have provided human resources and technical experiences to this project.
3. Objectives 3.1 Long-term Objective The project aims to restore the ecology of the Alxa District by 2010 through land and dry land resource development. This will bring the area towards sustainable development. 3.1 Immediate Objectives * To restore the Ejin oasis, the Helan mountains, and the northern ranching area through planting pasture and through the use of forests as protection against sand storms. The restoration will involve aerial sowing, forest planting, closure of degraded grassland and planting in enclosed grasslands with five different types of grasses. * To relocate ecological refugees to a newly built oasis at the Luanjingtan. * To effectively use man-made rain technology and to establish a monitoring system for the ecosystem
4. Outputs and Activities 4.1 Establishment of a green screen and restoration of a protection forest * To restore the green screens at the Ejin Oasis, the sacsaoul forest belt traversing from east to the west in the northern pastoral area of the Alxa League, and the secondary forest of the Helan Mountains. The restoration includes: recovery of 253,000 hectares of degraded forest and the establishment of the National Juyan Oasis Protection Area, which covers an area of 6700 hectares; restore 530,000 hectares of sacsoul and caragana forest in the northern Alxa League; and to protect 24,000 hectares of forest and vegetation in the National Helan Mountain Protection Area. The combined restoration will form a 200 km long natural green screen in Ningxia Plain that would block sand storms; * To plant a protection forest in the Shidatan Integrated Agricultural Development Zone. This will form a 60 km long green screen that will block sand storms. * To prevent sand erosion in the Southwest edge and the Yellow River section of Ulanbuhe desert, which covers 15,000 hectares. Furthermore, the project plans to plant a forest with an area of 420,000 hectares by aerial sowing in the Southeast edge of the Tenggeli desert. Monitoring Indicators : foresting areas and renewal-rejuvenation areas. Implementing Agencies: the following units of Alxa League Government Forestry Department, Animal Husbandry Department, Environmental Protection Department and its Development Project Headquarters of Luanjingtan Irrigation Zone. Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 1999 4.2 Agricultural development in the man-made oasis * To develop ranching and agriculture in the man-made oasis in Luanjingtan of Alxa League. This will be a pilot project that will develop 16,400 hectares of grassland with 11,500 hectares of irrigated area. Monitoring Indicators: relocation of 25,000 ranchers from ecologically damaged areas to the new oasis. They will become farmers, ranchers and workers in food factories. Implementing Agency: Development Project Headquarters of Luanjingtan Irrigation Zone of Alxa League. Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 2000 4.3 Grassland restoration * To aerial-sow grass seed for 333,000 hectares from the Tenggeli Desert to the Ulanbuhe Desert. The sowing will restore the desertified grasslands; * To enclose 333,000 hectares of degraded grassland in the Alxa Left Banner. The enclosure will restore the grass in the area; * To establish 4,000 enclosed grass farms for ranching families so that they will have basic facilities for ranching, such as water supply, grassland, forest, forage, and machines. This item ensures that each ranching family will have one grass farm. Monitoring Indicators: aerial-sowing of forage grass, enclosure of degraded grassland for restoration, and creating grass farms for ranching families. Implementing Agency: Alxa League Animal Husbandry Department. Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 2010 4.4 Increase the use of man-made rain * To establish man-made rain bases in the Helan Mountains military airport and the Dongfengsite of Ejin banner; * To establish cloud condition monitoring networks and bases for rain creation rockets. Monitoring Indicators: an increase of 20 mm rainfall within 210,000 square km in the affected area. Implementing Agency: Weather Bureau of Alxa League. Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 2010 4.5 Establishment of desert ecology monitoring stations * To establish a geology system monitoring centre in the Helan Mountains; * To establish an ecological agricultural monitoring station in the Luanjingtan desert oasis; * To establish an ecological system monitoring sub-station in the Alxa Right Banner; * To establish an ecological system monitoring sub-station in the Juyan oasis. Monitoring Indicators: monitoring of ecological related parameters such as climate, soil, vegetation, animals, and micro-organisms in the area. In addition, the project will establish a monitoring belt which is a few kilometres wide and 10 kilometres long. Climate data such as temperature, humidity and water temperature will be measured in the belt. Implementing Agency: Alxa Environmental Protection Bureau. Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 1999
5. Inputs 5.1 Chinese Inputs The Chinese inputs will mainly be used for the accommodation of local specialists, transportation, personnel training, purchase of instruments and equipment, construction costs of the project, scientific research and management of the items. 5.2 International Inputs International inputs will be used for importing advanced foreign technology for desert oasis vegetation, enclosure and cultivation, water saving techniques and for equipment necessary for the above. International inputs will also be used in introducing advanced foreign technology for desert ecology supervision, comprehensive use of grassland resources, the increase of artificial rainfall and for resource development and management software. 5.3 Budget The total capital needed for this project is US$ 95.78 million. The Chinese side will raise US$ 52.86 million from domestic sources, while foreign aid will cover the other US$ 42.92 million.
Table 1. Budget by Item (in million US dollars)
Table 2. Budget by Output (in million US dollars)
6. Benefits After the completion of the project, three green screens will be formed in the Alxa area (by the year 2010). The green screens will be formed in the Ejin Oasis, the sacsaoul forest in the northern Alxa district and the secondary forest in the Helan Mountain. They will be complemented by two planted grass belt, ten man-made oases and 4,000 grass farms. The restoration of degraded grasslands is critical to the creation of a healthy ecosystem in the region. This will slow down ecological degradation and will guide the area into sustainable development. The project will play a significant role in social and economic development in the surrounding area, northern China and eastern China. The restoration will reduce the direct loss in agriculture by RMB 40 million and in industry by RMB 150 million. 7. Risks The main factor affecting the project is the lack of surface and ground water resources in the Alxa district. The government should strengthen its macro-management and control of water resources and allocate reasonable amount of water to the area. Text Browser Utilities: |Back| |ACCA21 Home| | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||