CAUSES OF DESERTIFICATION IN CHINADesertification is considered one of the most serious environmental and societal economic issues in the universe. Desertification has been disturbing China for Numberss of old ages. “ China ‘s desertification is turning worse ” .[ 1 ]As a big state with a heavy population and complex environmental conditions, China is cognizant that desertification combating is of importance to its environment and community. Dunhuang a metropolis located at the north-western portion of China faces menaces from the enlargement of the desert environing the metropolis and its rich antediluvian artefacts.Desertification is the procedure by which fertile land becomes a desert ; it is typically a consequence of drouth, deforestation, or inappropriate agribusiness. [ desertification.jpg ]China is one of the developing states with big decertified countries and about 60 per centum of China ‘s population is populating in the affected countries. Even with the authorities ‘s long-standing committedness China still faces unresolved jobs such as deficient national funding and the battle against desertification. “ China is one of the states which are badly affected by desertification which encompasses over 30 per centum of the entire land district and adversely affects 400 million people.”[ 2 ]”[ 3 ]In recent old ages, this big desert has expanded in some countries, its littorals enfolding small towns and farms as a consequence of human-created desertification. In the past 2 millenaries, it has been estimated in north-western China that about 40 metropoliss have been abandoned due to the broad spread of the desert.The Kumtag desert is a subdivision of the Taklimakan. The Kumtag is an waterless landform in north-western China, which has been proclaimed as a national park in the twelvemonth 2002. The Kumtag is the 6th largest desert in China, and it has been said to be spread outing to the metropolis of Dunhuang making the borders of the metropolis, ensuing from longstanding overgrazing of environing lands which makes the desert expand at the rate of 1 to 4 metres per twelvemonth.The chief metropolis of Taklimakan is Dunhuang, with a current population of 180,000. It has been said that about 2000 old ages ago the metropolis has already been surrounded by immense sand saddle horses, Buddhist priest and nuns lived in the caves on that site that hapless people today still inhabit. The metropolis Dunhuang holding big parts of farming areas turned into comeuppances caught the attending of the Chinese authorities and conservationist doing desertification one of the serious jobs in China. Harmonizing to Environmentalists ; deforestation, farm animal overgrazing, and inefficient H2O usage are the causes of the accelerated enlargement of the comeuppances in China.The causes of desertification in China consequences chiefly in the influences of clime alteration and semisynthetic activities, among which human factors are the most dramatic 1s. Desertification has accelerated due to immense population growing, deficiency of cognition of the importance of the protection of the ecosystem, the demands of economic development, over-grazing, over cultivation, deforestation of flora caused by renewal of grasslands and other types of prairies, inappropriate farming system on incline and the debasement of vegetive coverage, the recreation of H2O from rivers for both human and farm animal and over drafting of land H2O. “ Farmers take H2O from their belowground H2O militias faster than nature can refill them ”[ 4 ], the film editing and use of the staying trees for firewood and cookery besides contributes a batch in the job of land debasement. In short the local population ‘s demands for more supplies from nature adds more force per unit area to Mother Nature and its natural resources ; adding to the lay waste toing desertification procedure.“ The Chinese authorities and the Chinese people are innovators in battling desertification. ”[ 5 ]China has developed and innovate sand control techniques which includes arrested development of dirt for nomadic sand dunes along the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway. Other techniques used were aero-seeding over switching sand dunes, narrow strip planting, straw checker board webs, shelterbelts and windbreaks of grass, bushs and trees for farming area protection and agro-forestry ecosystems.[ 6 ]China even made programs which incorporated direction for eroding control that included the development of hills, water partings and roads.There are Numberss of methods that have been used in order to cut down the enlargement of comeuppances around the universe, but most steps merely treat the symptoms of the land motion and do non truly bring around the root causes of land change such as unsustainable agriculture, overgrazing and deforestation.A decennary ago China had a Ten Year National Plan for H2O and dirt preservation and battling desertification from 1991 to the twelvemonth 2000, these programs aimed to retrieve 6.66 million hectares of decertified land. During those old ages, China implemented 20 greening undertakings in 20 cardinal counties under nine different desertification conditions, to command the negative impact of H2O eroding on 40 000km2 of land and to diminish the farming area countries subject to switching sand dunes.[ 7 ]Today, one manner of countering desertification is the provisioning of H2O to dry up lands, in footings of “ supplying Wellss and energy intensive systems affecting H2O pipes used locally or used over long distances and fixating the dirt. ”[ 8 ]In China, fixating dirt or the usage of Shelter Belts, woodlots and parkas has ever been an option to work out its job with desertification. It is stated in a intelligence article from China.org that “ China and Japan cooperated to construct Yangguan windbreak in Dunhuang ” ,[ 9 ]doing the windbreak the 2nd green undertaking between China and Japan. The first undertaking was in Heishanzui which involved a building of a shelterbelt and a sand-fixation wood, this undertaking helped command some of the largest air current drouths in Dunhuang. “ About 400,000 Chinese poplars and tamarisks will be planted, covering an country of 160 hectars ” .[ 10 ]The Shelterbelt undertaking in Dunhuang purposes to advance ecological protection and to hold control over the distributing desert in the northern portion of China.On a much larger graduated table a “ Green Wall of China ” a long stretch of windbreaks will be planted ( every bit long as the Great Walls of China ) to keep down sand, stabilise sand dunes and the trees to function as a air current interruption for sand storms.[ 11 ]Tree fencings and grass belts are planted protecting oases and stray farming areas assisting it cut down eroding and traveling dunes, little trees and bushs are distributed inside the oases to ease the country.Desertification will be an on-going challenge for the people of China. Hopefully they will happen more solutions in work outing the issue of the spread outing desert. The Government undertakings, environmental patterns, spread outing cognition and “ Green Environmental ” partnerships with other states are stepping rocks in work outing the desertification job in China. Every person non merely in China but around the universe should be cognizant and pattern steps on how to avoid this semisynthetic environmental job.Figure 1: WORLD VIEW OF THE TAKLIMAKAN DESERT, “ Dark Brown colour at the centre ”Figure 2: Map of the Taklimakan Desert( ruddy circle = zoomed in Kumtag Desert and City of Dunhuang location on following page ) hypertext transfer protocol: //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Tarimrivermap.pngFigure 3: Map of the Kumtag Desert ( Kumtag Desert – Green Circle ) hypertext transfer protocol: //www.visitourchina.com/special/loulan/images/map_loulan.jpgFigure 7: the Kumtag desert enlargement endangering the Mogao Grottoes, merely 5 kilometers off from the metropolis of DunhuangFigure 6: Consumed metropolis merely following to the Kumtag desertFigure 4: Close Satellite Photo of the Taklimakan desertFigure 5: Desert Expanding to Grass Landshttp: //thewe.cc/thewei/ & A ; /images3/environment/china_desert_encroaching.jpehttp: //www.chinadaily.com.cn/ezine/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20071012/0013729e44e10879153e5d.jpgTo go with AFP narrative “ China-environment-desertification, FEATURE ” by Dan Martin. Ma Wangzhen walks though her onion farm on the border of the desert that threatens to steep it on the border of the ancient Chinese metropolis of Dunhuang in China ‘s northwest Gansu state, 25 October 2007. Ma is on the front lines of a national battle against a grim enemy: desertification in the ancient oasis in destitute Gansu state along the historic Silk Road, 20 November 2007. Dunhuang is in danger of being swallowed by the littorals of the next Kumtag desert, which are crawling nearer at a rate of up to four meters ( 13 pess ) a year.http: //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Taklamakan.pngCHINA ‘S ACTION PLAN TOWARDS DESERTIFICATIONTo travel with AFP narrative “ China-environment-desertification, FEATURE ” by Dan Martin. Workers pick cotton on the border of the desert that threatens to steep the ancient Chinese metropolis of Dunhuang in China ‘s northwest Gansu state, 22 October 2007. Ma is on the front lines of a national battle against a grim enemy: desertification in the ancient oasis in destitute Gansu state along the historic Silk Road, 20 November 2007. Dunhuang is in danger of being swallowed by the littorals of the next Kumtag desert, which are crawling nearer at a rate of up to four meters ( 13 pess ) a year.http: //www.buddhistchannel.tv/picture/upload/longmen-grotto1-s.jpg