Blueprint for greening of China unveiled

Beijing aims for cleaner air, less soil erosion, abundant wildlife and reafforestation

AFP

BEIJING — In its biggest environmental initiative since the 1992 Earth Summit, Beijing unveiled a blueprint for the greening of China by replacing deserts with forests, and for lucrative forest industries.

Forestry Minister Xu Youfang said Local capital, the World Bank, and other international loans and volunteer labour were basically adequate for the plan to boost forest coverage from the current 14 ~per cent to 17 per cent in 2010, and 20 percent in 2050.

He said China still welcomed more foreign financial and technical help for Its sweeping Forest Action Plan, which he presented at a Beijing news conference.

China’s re-greening will pay huge dividends, ranging from cleaner air, more absorption of carbon dioxide, less acid rain, lesser soil erosion and safer habitats for ~re abundant wildlife, to the growing profits that will come with recovery and exploitations of arid wastelands.

Mr Xu said: "Forestry is the key link in combining environmental protection with economic development."

The forest plan is the first detailed scheme drafted by Beijing since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, when Premier Li Peng pledged China’s support of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, dubbed Agenda 21.

Upon completion of 10 major forest and shelter-belt projects early next century, China will be able to reverse many Df the natural calamities it now suffers.

Mr Xu said: "Disasters such as water and soil erosion, desertification of land and severe flood and drought will be basically controlled."

Six projects are under way, and nine southern provinces have completed initial "barren-hills" eradication schemes in which erosion-prone treeless slopes were replanted.

China also uses the labour of its 1.2 billion people to support tree planting. Girls and women aged 11 to 55 and men and boys from 11 to 60 are required to donate time each year to help plant trees. Last year, 2.4 billion trees were planted under this programme.

The forestry plan calls for increasing forest and wildlife reserves from 5 per cent to 7 per cent of the total area of the country.

The reserves are home to such endangered species as the giant panda, crested ibis, Chinese alligator, wild horses, Elder’s deer, Pere David’s deer and Saiga antelope.

China is using US$500 million (S$695 million) in World Bank loans for a range of afforestation projects, which aim to push back deserts that have swallowed up vast tracts of forest.

The action plan calls for heavy investment in the planting and management of forests and in non-timber forest enterprises, including tourism, animal and plant industries and minerals. —Reuter, AP.

BEIJING — Acid rain was worsening dramatically in Guangdong as the southern Chinese province expanded coal-fueled Industries to meet energy and raw-material needs triggered by rapid growth, a report said yesterday.

Last year, about 581,400 tonnes of sulphur dioxide — the main cause of acid rain — were discharged into the air, a 63-per cent increase over 1990.

Experts warned that it might be Impossible to curb the problem if Guangdong continued to expand power plants, building-materials factories and other coal-fueled industries.

China’s reliance on coal for ‘16 per cent of Its energy supply makes it a major contributor to acid rain because of the high sulphur content of local coal.

Acid rain now affects 2.8 million sq km of China, up 60 per cent over 1985.

Initially concentrated in the south, acid rain has spread into northern regions and It is blamed for destroying forests and crops, making lakes uninhabitable for aquatic life, and damaging old buildings and stone sculptures. —China Daily, AFP.

Source : The Straits Times, 11th  May 1995

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