BEIJING -- China claimed success Tuesday in stemming desertification that is costing the country billions of dollars, saying it has slowed for the first time in decades although the situation remains grave.
"Notable progress has been made in combating desertification and sandification in China ... but the situation is still severe," Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration, said at a briefing.
Sandification refers to soil erosion due to deforestation, resulting in the soil losing its water-retaining characteristics and thus restricting forest re-growth.
Zhu said the situation was slowly improving, with a reduction of desertified land since 1999 in the most disaster-prone areas including Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Liaoning and Ningxia in northern and northwestern China.
Halting the march of deserts has become a priority for China with state media previously reporting that desertification costs the country more than 40 billion dollars every year in direct and indirect economic losses.
The direct losses are mainly from the loss or decrease in soil productivity caused by wind and water erosion, and saline and alkaline soil.
Indirect losses came from suspension of communication and transportation, villages being buried, the delay or cancellation of flights and reduction in the life of irrigation works, which are heavily affected by desertification.
Zhu said that by the end of 2004, the area of desertified land in China totaled 2.64 million square kilometers (1.05 million square miles), or 27.5 percent of total land area.
But he said areas of sandy land were now shrinking instead of expanding as it has been in the past. It was previously expanding at the rate of 3,436 square kilometers annually but is now shrinking 1,283 square kilometers.
To hold back the desert, China is offering farmers subsidies to plant trees instead growing crops in a nationwide re-forestation project and is also encouraging voluntary resettlement in the desertification areas, he said.
He warned however that excessive grazing and deforestation continues to take its toll.
"We do face many challenges -- desertification and poverty are linked together," Zhu said. "Over 70 percent of the impoverished places are in desertified areas."
