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Fig. 20.1
The distribution of true desert and the areas affected by desertification in North China.
Note the location of desertification hot spots on some desert margins where sand encroachment is
a major concern (Mao et al.
2010
)
2
AChineseCaseStudy
China is widely recognized as the country with the most extensive and severe
desertification, exacerbated by the heavy impact of the world's largest human
population (Luo and Zhang
2006
). Population density in many of China's arid
regions exceed the UN guideline by a large margin. Other countries in the world's
drylands have quite high densities as shown by the UN map Fig.
20.2
. The pressure
exerted for water, food crops, forage and fuel wood are leading to the denudation of
entire landscapes.
The driving forces for the different environmental problems in Asia (as well as in
the rest of the world) are fundamentally related to human population growth which
increases the use of natural resources and production of wastes. Rapid population
growth in Asia has contributed to the destruction of natural habits, wide-spread
land conversion, and increased intensities of land use, further resulting in a series
of problems of ecosystem degradation including desertification, salinization and
alkalization, water-logging, and air and water pollution.
The land use pattern throughout NW China seems to dictate the responsibilities
of the various line Ministries and their counterpart Bureaus at Provincial, Prefecture
and County level. By this I mean that cropland (including the highly vulnerable
dry farming regions) is the responsibility of the Agriculture portfolio. Rangelands,
especially shrublands are the responsibility of the Forestry Administration. As
rangeland is converted (so called land reclamation) from rangelands to cropland it
passes to the control of Agriculture. The residual land (sometimes called wasteland)
is the responsibility of Forestry whose mandate is to control sand encroachment,
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