A Third of China's Soil Is Eroded, and the Situation for Farmland Protection Is Grim
By the end of 2013, China had a total of 646.1684 million hectares of agricultural land, with a net increase of 0.0049 million hectares of farmland during the year. China's total area of soil erosion now stands at 2.9491 million square kilometers, accounting for 31.12% of the total area covered by the survey. Zhao Ye, a professor at the School of Environment of Beijing Normal University, points out that the causes of soil erosion are many and varied, and that efforts to tackle it must take both natural factors and human conditions into comprehensive account.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Environmental Protection released the "2014 Report on the State of China's Environment." The report notes that in 2014, with the great attention of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, positive progress was made in building ecological civilization and in reforming the field of ecology and the environment, new strides were taken in preventing and controlling air, water and soil pollution, the annual task of reducing total emissions of major pollutants was successfully completed, the comprehensive role of environmental protection in optimizing development continued to emerge, environmental legislation, law enforcement supervision and environmental risk management became more vigorous, ecological and environmental protection advanced steadily, and nuclear and radiation safety remained under control.
The report shows that China now has 208 million hectares of forest, with a forest stock volume of 15.137 billion cubic meters. The country's grassland area is nearly 400 million hectares, accounting for about 41.7% of the national land area, making it the largest terrestrial ecosystem and ecological security barrier in the country. By the end of 2013, China had a total of 646.1684 million hectares of agricultural land, with a net increase of 0.0049 million hectares of farmland during the year. China's total area of soil erosion now stands at 2.9491 million square kilometers, accounting for 31.12% of the total area covered by the survey. Zhao Ye, a professor at the School of Environment of Beijing Normal University, points out that the causes of soil erosion are many and varied, and that efforts to tackle it must take both natural factors and human conditions into comprehensive account.
Zhao Ye: There are two reasons why the proportion of eroded soil in China is so high. One is natural. China is a country with a vast area of mountains and hills, which gives soil erosion a kind of latent energy. China mainly has a continental monsoon climate, with concentrated rainfall and relatively high rainfall intensity, and China's soil types are also very complex. As for human causes, the intensity of land development and use in China is relatively great, and our methods of use are relatively extensive. Another is the felling of forests, including the lack of surface vegetation. So to prevent and control it, you have to take into account topography, climate and soil - these are the three most important factors. The land consolidation projects that our country has been carrying out in recent years are also important; right now, because of construction funding and various other aspects, our land consolidation amounts to just leveling the land, but the key is still to further optimize our methods of land use.
The report shows that in 2013, the overall quality of the national ecological environment was “average.” Of 2,461 counties, those whose ecological environment quality was “excellent” and “good” accounted for 46.7% of the national land area, those rated “average” accounted for 23.0%, and those rated “relatively poor” and “poor” accounted for 30.3%. Zhao Ye, a professor at the School of Environment of Beijing Normal University, believes that compared with environmental remediation, preventing environmental pollution is more important.
Zhao Ye: With environmental problems, I think remediation is not the most important thing. In our field of the environment, remediation is called end-of-pipe treatment, because if you do not control the pollution source and do not control the cause, and you just carry out treatment, that is very passive. I think we should raise the ecological and environmental awareness of the whole public in China; this is very important. If everyone knew about this, then a great many of our environmental problems and environmental pollution accidents would not happen. This is called treating the problem at its source. Right now there is one person dealing with environmental problems, while perhaps 100 people are creating new environmental problems for you. My suggestion is that we still need to publicize this.