Does China suffer from desertification?

China is severely affected by desertification, with more than a quarter of its territory covered in desert. As of 2010, 57% of its territory, or 2.97 million hectares, had been affected by desertification. The encroaching deserts threaten to destroy farmland and bury villages, forcing people to abandon their homes.

Why is desertification a problem in China?

China’s most underdeveloped counties are located in decertified areas. 1.4 The major causes of land desertification in China are climate change and human economic activities. Soil loss due to wind erosion was ten to 15 cm, and sand loss, 20 to 150 cm for a total economic damage of 560 million RMB yuan.

What is China doing about desertification?

The government mobilised over a million people and initiated massive engineering projects like Three North Shelter Forest System, the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Project and the Grain for Green Project, to reverse the desertification.

What is the Chinese government doing to prevent desertification?

To scale up measures against desertification, the Chinese government has also developed a National Action Programme to Combat Desertification by expanding protected areas and restoring overgrazed and marginal farmlands to their natural state.

Is China’s great green wall working?

The Great Green Wall project is expected to continue until 2050 and aims to plant around 88 million acres of forests in a wall stretching about 3 000 miles and as wide as 900 miles in some places.

Was Gobi desert a forest?

The Sahara, Mojave, Gobi, and other famous deserts haven’t always been grassless wastelands. Even the South Pole is thought to have been the site of a lush rain forest—and not too long ago, considering the planet is an estimated 4.5 billion years old.

Is the Gobi Desert Hot or cold?

The Gobi Desert is cold. SO cold that in winter it snows, and frost sometimes covers the dunes. This is due to its northern proximity and that it lies at around 910–1,520 metres (2,990–4,990 ft) above sea level.

Is the Gobi Desert still expanding?

The Gobi Desert is expanding through desertification, most rapidly on the southern edge into China, which is seeing 3,600 km2 (1,390 sq mi) of grassland overtaken every year.

Can we turn deserts into forests?

While it is technically possible to turn a desert into a forest, it is a process that would probably take more than several decades. The process of turning deserts into forests is called desert greening, and it is something that has been going on for several years now.

What has caused desertification in China?

Desertification in China is caused largely by overgrazing. Huge flocks of sheep and goats strip the land of vegetation. In Xillinggol Prefecture in Inner Mongolia , for example, the livestock population increased from 2 million in 1977 to 18 million in 2000, turning one third of the grassland area to desert.

What is the reason for desertification in China?

Causes of modern desertification in China 5.1. Variations in wind activity. Wind activity is a key factor that controls aeolian geomorphological processes, dust transportation and deposition, and desertification in arid and semiarid China. 5.2. Variations in spring precipitation. 5.3. Dune mobilization. 5.4. Human impacts on desertification.

What is desertification is caused by?

Desertification is caused by a combination of factors that change over time and vary by location. These include indirect factors such as population pressure, socioeconomic and policy factors, and international trade as well as direct factors such as land use patterns and practices and climate-related processes.