Desert Development: How Does It Relate to Anti Desertification Measures? - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 420

3 Desert Control - A Distraction?

The Chinese preoccupation with “taming the desert” and the constant attempts to
create a new oasis, to transform the desert into a better environment is a major
distraction from the urgent task of controlling land degradation. Lack of capital
investment is stated by many officials as the principal reason for the lack of
progress in controlling desertification. When asked about how they might proceed
if money was available the invariable answer was to extend the system of irrigation
distribution channels and plant trees in the desert i.e. to create a new oasis. There is
a complete lack of interest in more ecologically sound and sustainable approaches
that rely on native vegetation already adapted to the harsh desert environment.
The confusion between controlling the desert (a not unreasonable aim) and deser-
tification control has hindered China's efforts. A consequence of misunderstanding
about desertification, fuelled by the belief that desert spreading is the primary
problem, is the planting of sand dunes. Planting, though costly, is technically and
logistically a simple operation now perfected by years of investigation in Northwest
China. The benefit/cost ratio of planting is low or negative. But planting is visible
and gives the impression that something is being done. It allows government
agencies to avoid tackling the much harder social and economic problems of
insidious land degradation. Phenomena like desertification involve environmental,
economic and social factors. The combined effects have either been ignored or
treated in a one-sided manner. Progress in combating desertification will require
a major re-think (Carrad et al. 2006 ) and the application of holistic approaches such
as Integrated Ecosystem Management (IEM).
In my view unless this contradiction between the aim of desertification control
and the Chinese agenda of using foreign loans and grants to transform the desert is
resolved little progress can be made in dealing with China's burgeoning problems
of dust storms and rural poverty.
There is a reluctance to acknowledge that much of the current land degradation is
due to poor land use decisions and flawed development strategies over a long period
of time, rather than climate changes or other natural factors. In PRC, the arable
land per capita is 0.11 ha. The shrinking arable land area and increasing demand
for agricultural products pressures farmers to extract higher yields from their land,
at the expense of stable soil structure and adequate organic matter content, leading
to increased soil erosion. There is a clear connection between land degradation and
poverty. Almost 90 % of rural people living in poverty are located in areas suffering
from land degradation. In the dryland areas, rapidly increasing livestock numbers
exacerbate the spread of desertification and directly contribute to the increasing
frequency and severity of dust storms.
Over 90 % of the rangeland (grasslands and shrublands) in Xinjiang, Inner
Mongolia and Qinghai suffer from moderate to severe degradation at a time when
livestock numbers are increasing to meet the demand for meat and other livestock
products is rising (Fig. 20.8 ).