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China's efforts to build the world's largest shelterbelt has entered a new stage with focus placed on controlling desertification and soil erosion in the Loess Plateau.
When the project is completed in 2050, the ecological environment will be improved greatly in 40 percent of the country' s land area, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said Monday.

The "Three-North" Shelterbelt Project has been carried out for 23 years in northeastern, northern and northwestern China, areas that are vulnerable to rampant droughts, sand storms and soil erosion.

The shelterbelt stretches 4,480 kilometers from east to west, and between 560 to 1,460 km from north to south, covering about 4. 05 million square kilometers, or 42 percent of China's land area.

Desertification caused by natural factors and human activities has become a key ecological problem in the "Three-North" area, which results in shrinking arable land shrinking, frequent natural disasters and growing poverty for the local people.

The "Three-North" area is the home to 98 percent of deserts, Gobi and land of desertification in China. More than 4.5 billion yuan (544 million US dollars) of direct economic losses caused by sand storms are reported annually in this area.

A sand belt formed in the area has extended to 2.7 million square kilometers, or 30 percent of China's total land area, and is still expanding, said SFA Director Zhou Shengxian, quoting the surveillance results from the SFA desertification control center.
Serious soil erosion and frequent droughts as a result of desertification have baffled social and economic development in the area.

The massive project will be carried out in eight phases for planting trees in a total area of 35 million hectares. Work for the first three phases has been finished since 1978 far and more than 22 million hectares of trees have been planted, with the forest coverage rate rising to ten percent from five percent in 1977, said the SFA director.

In the fourth phase starting from this year, 9.5 million hectares of trees will be planted in 13 provinces and autonomous regions before 2010, while the existing 27.87 million hectares of forests will be well protected and about 40 percent of deserts in the area will be basically brought under control.

He said the whole project is expected to cost at least 57.68 billion yuan (about seven billion US dollars).

The central government will be responsible for the investment, while local governments and people will undertake the construction work.

"The government will ensure and increase the funds meant for the project," said Liu Jiang, vice minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission.(Xinhua)