Keeping the desert at bay

A cloud of sand obscured cars on the north bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River under the azure sky on Sunday at noon.

Had there been no bushes and fences preventing cattle from grazing, outsiders may have mistaken the sand hills near Lhotsan village, Nedong county, in Shannan prefecture, as part of a desert.

Desertification in Shannan prefecture, the Tibet autonomous region, where there is little precipitation and an arid climate, has been "serious", according to local authorities. A total of 186,000 hectares have turned to sand in the prefecture, where the banks of the Yarlung Zangbo River suffer most.

However, locals have been working with the government since 2005 to build a green wall to contain and reverse the desertification process.

By the end of 2012, they have built a sheltering forest of 20,000 hectares, closed off 24,000 hectares so the vegetation can regrow, and fenced off 10,000 hectares of land to protect it from grazing.

Wells, pipes and irrigation systems have been built to "turn the sand beach into green land".

"The area used to be rough and barren. Though we haven't made outstanding changes so far, I'm still proud and happy about our efforts," said Zhou Kai, deputy director of the prefecture's forestry bureau.

"We can't match the power of nature nor change its manner. But we have to continue our efforts."

Genga Sonam, 59, a farmer in Lhotsan who cultivated 20 hectares of bushes and trees in 2011, said he is pleased to see the plants turning green in the summer.

He said more and more birds come to his bushes, and he even saw three deer coming down from the mountains to find food in the past two Julys.

"We were working, and then we surrounded the deer to watch them. We are so excited," said Sonam.

"The air has turned better, too. In the past, the sand in the wind was so heavy no one could keep his eyes open."

According to the local government, the improvement along the riverbanks has led to changes in other areas of the prefecture. Forest, covering 18.3 percent of the prefecture, is concentrated mostly in four counties.

Since 2008, people in the prefecture have planted 46,000 hectares of forest. In the past two years, the prefecture controlled the expansion of desertification or reversed more than 10,000 hectares of desertification.

Statistics show the number of moving and half-moving sand hills of more than 1 square kilometer in the prefecture reduced by two-thirds so far.

Sandstorms have not caused traffic jams on the No 101 provincial road for years.

Meanwhile, the operation of the regions' airport has become less affected by sandy wind.

In many agricultural areas that had been seriously affected by the hazard, crop yields have doubled.

Zhou said the bureau aims to increase forestation to 19.2 percent by 2015.

The local forestation industry would then be worth 300 million yuan ($48 million) and generate more than 150 million yuan in income for farmers and herdsmen.

Tsering Gyatso, a farmer replanting botanicals blown out of the soil by winter winds, earns 50 yuan a day.

"I hope the bushes and trees can survive the harsh winter, but we don't have enough water," he said, as the pipes had frozen.

"I'll try my best."

Contact the writer at wanghuazhong@chinadaily.com.cn