Materials related to environmental protection, mainly materials on land desertification, urgent, online, etc.

Desertification refers to the natural disaster phenomenon in which land originally covered by plants becomes barren land. The "desert" referred to here mostly emphasizes that the land is not suitable for plant growth or agricultural development, rather than the desert climate caused by the dryness of the area itself. However, land without plant growth may lead to a dry climate because it cannot distribute water through evaporation.

Desertification may be natural. Desertification as a natural phenomenon is caused by the movement of dry zones on the earth, and the resulting climate changes lead to desertification in local areas. However, most of the causes of desertification in various parts of the world today are attributed to human factors; the rapid growth of population and the over-cultivation and livestock herding of the land they live on have made the land dry and unsuitable for farming.

The Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) region in the Middle East was one of the earliest regions in the world to develop agriculture, thus developing into one of the earliest birthplaces of civilization in the world. The soil in Mesopotamia was originally very fertile. However, due to excessive agricultural activities, people ignored the long-term thirst of the land and developed the upper reaches of the river and cut down forests. The upper reaches of the land were unable to absorb rainfall, and the rainwater flowed into the river at once, causing water and soil problems. runoff and flooding.

According to the announcement of China’s State Forestry Administration on June 17, 2006, China’s desertified land reached 1,739,700 square kilometers, accounting for more than 18% of the country’s land area, affecting 30 first-level administrative regions (provinces and autonomous regions) across the country. , municipalities).

Drylands (defined as those areas with low rainfall, usually caused by small, erratic, short-lived, intense storms) cover 40% of the global land area and support the world's 1/5 of the population. Desertification of these dry lands is land degradation caused by reduced vegetation and available water, reduced crop yields, and soil erosion, resulting from population growth, increased human needs, or political or economic pressures (e.g., the need for cash crops to increase foreign exchange) Caused by excessive land use, often initiated or exacerbated by naturally occurring droughts. Currently, the rate of desertification is 60,000 square kilometers per year or 0.1% of the total dry land area per year. This is a potential threat to 70% of drylands (25% of the world's land area).

In arid and sub-arid areas (including some sub-humid areas), under conditions of drought and windy conditions and loose sandy surfaces, due to irrational human economic activities, the original non-sandy deserts have become In the area, there has been an environmental degradation process similar to the desert landscape, mainly marked by wind and sand activities and dune undulations. The land area affected by desertification on the earth is more than 38 million square kilometers. Currently, about 6 million hectares of land are desertified every year in the world. The desertification problem covers a wide range and has attracted worldwide attention. The natural factors that cause desertification are mainly drought, loose sandy sediments on the surface and blowing by strong winds; the main human factors are overgrazing, overcultivation, excessive firewood and irrational use of water resources. Desertification is a phenomenon of environmental degradation, a process that gradually leads to a decrease in biological productivity, and includes three stages: occurrence, development and formation. The occurrence stage (initial stage) is potential desertification, and only the basic conditions for desertification exist, such as a dry climate, surface vegetation beginning to be destroyed, and a small area of ??loose quicksand, etc.; in the development stage, the ground vegetation begins to be destroyed and wind erosion occurs. The surface is roughened, with spotty quicksand and low shrub sand piles. As wind and sand activities intensify, mobile sand dunes or blown shrub sand piles further appear. In the formation stage, dense flowing sand dunes or blown shrub sand piles are widely distributed on the surface. Sand piles occupy more than 50% of the land area. The harm of desertification is to destroy land resources, reduce the land area available for agriculture and animal husbandry, degrade the land's breeding capacity, reduce the number of plants, reduce the land's livestock capacity, and reduce the yield of crops per unit area. Desertification has caused serious losses to agriculture, animal husbandry, and people's livelihood and property in many countries and regions.

Desertification is a major threat to the development of world agriculture. Desertification is an environmental degradation phenomenon. It degrades the breeding capacity of the land, reduces agricultural and animal husbandry production capacity and biological yields, and reduces the area of ??available arable land and pasture. Soil erosion and barren land due to desertification have caused many countries to suffer from years of famine. The total land affected by desertification reaches 38 million square kilometers. The amount of land lost due to desertification is as high as 5 to 7 square kilometers every year, and 11 hectares of land are desertified almost every minute. If desertification continues without effective suppression, by the end of this century, the loss of cultivated land is expected to reach 1/3 of the current cultivated land. This is such a dangerous signal! my country is also a country with serious land desertification. Deserts and desertified land have already It expanded from 667,000 square kilometers in 1949 to 130 square kilometers in 1985, accounting for approximately 13.6% of the total land area. Desertified land is growing at a rate of 60 square kilometers every year. In addition to the natural factors that cause sand dunes to move forward and invade due to force, desertification is more common in my country due to human factors that destroy vegetation, such as over-farming, over-grazing, over-logging, and industrial and transportation construction. There is a set of statistics that illustrates the problem. The causes of desertification in Chenwo trapped land are: over-exploitation of forests accounts for 32.4%, over-exploitation accounts for 29.4%, over-use of land accounts for 23.3%, improper use of water resources accounts for 6%, and shifting sand dunes. Accounting for 5·5%, urban, industrial and mining construction accounted for 0.8%.

It can be seen from these statistics that the vast majority (95%) of land desertification in our country is caused by human factors. Therefore, protecting and utilizing the land well, sealing sand to cultivate grass, building windproof sand forests, and implementing comprehensive development and management of forestry, animal husbandry, and water conservancy will give full play to the effect of plant groups to achieve the purpose of returning sand to soil. Soil is the mother of plants and the material basis for the prosperity of green homes. Protecting and making good use of land means protecting our green home and protecting ourselves.

The so-called desertification refers to the creatures on the land. The decline or even loss of productivity is mainly due to human damage to the natural environment. One of the most obvious places of desertification is the Sahel on the southern side of the Sahara Desert. In the northern part of the area, sheep and camels were raised in a nomadic or grazing style, eating up all the vegetation in the area, leaving the land bare. In the more humid and vast south, due to the over-breeding of livestock and the originally small arable land, it could no longer withstand continuous farming, and the entire area gradually became a barren land.

Coupled with the shortage of water sources, people began to dig wells for water. When people gathered for water sources, more livestock were raised, which again accelerated the deterioration of the environment and contributed to desertification. This vicious cycle , making people in the area generally live a very difficult life. There is no rainy season in the Sahara Desert, so there will be no rainfall, but as long as there is any moisture, the plants sleeping underground will compete to sprout new shoots, but soon they will be eaten up by overgrazing livestock. ...So desertified soil is still expanding silently...

2. Countermeasures and suggestions to prevent desertification

1. Strict legal discipline and punish administrative corruption

Since the reform and opening up, my country's legal system construction has entered a new stage, and a large number of laws and regulations have been formulated. Related to the prevention and control of desertification are the Environmental Protection Law, Forest Law, Grassland Law, and Soil and Water Conservation Law. Currently, the "Prevention and Control of Desertification" is being formulated, and a series of laws supporting these laws have also been formulated. regulations.

The reason why these laws and regulations are called laws and regulations is because they are authoritative, serious and mandatory. In a legal society, there is no power above the law. Substituting words for law and power for law is itself illegal and cannot be tolerated by the law. Therefore, any behavior that violates laws and regulations (including government behavior) must be punished and corrected in accordance with the law. Otherwise, the law will not become the law and will only encourage administrative corruption and disrupt social order.

However, in our government departments at all levels, there are always people who regard the power given by the people as personal privileges, as if laws and regulations are formulated for the common people and are specially used to discipline the common people. Can't restrain myself. Whatever is in line with the interests of oneself and the department will be administered in accordance with the law; otherwise, they will do everything possible to bypass "policy obstacles" and even find various excuses to set aside laws and regulations. It should be said that it is this kind of administrative corruption in law enforcement departments that has exacerbated the damage to our country's natural resources and ecological environment.

It is recommended that the National People's Congress carry out a targeted inspection of law enforcement on laws and regulations related to environmental protection under the theme of "Western Development, Ecology First", so as to promptly correct problems that arise in the law enforcement of governments at all levels and avoid In history, the tragedy of large-scale development causing great ecological damage is repeated.

2. Decision-making on environmental issues must be forward-looking and forward-thinking

my country’s decision to protect natural forests and ban logging of natural forests in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River was made in 1996. The decision to ban the mining and sale of Nostoc and stop the indiscriminate digging of licorice and ephedra was also made after the sandstorms and blowing sand weather disasters successively hit the Beijing area in the spring of 2000. They all made up their minds after paying a heavy price. In fact, whether it is floods or droughts, as early as the late 1970s and early 1980s, scholars and media had issued warnings such as "the Yangtze River is in danger of turning into the Yellow River" and "sandstorms are approaching Beijing." Our country's top decision-makers are not turning a deaf ear, but because it involves a wide range of social interest groups, and the government's financial support capacity is limited, it is difficult to make a prompt decision. However, all ecological and environmental problems have a kind of "superimposed benefit", which is just to treat the headache and the foot. If it is not fundamentally solved, it can only achieve half the result with twice the result. It is impossible to curb the accelerated pace of environmental deterioration, and once it is managed in the future , the cost will be higher, and the price will be more severe, far exceeding the immediate and temporary benefits at the expense of the ecological environment.

It is recommended that the State Council establish an expert advisory group and early warning and forecasting system for various ecological and environmental issues, including desertification, to provide scientific basis for high-level decision-making by government departments.

3. Increase national capital investment in desertification prevention and control

China’s desertification control projects have long been underinvested by the state. During the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period, the state invested only more than 100 million yuan in desertification control funds, and local matching funds were difficult to implement because desert areas are mostly "old, minority, border and poor" areas and local financial resources are limited. A considerable part of the people have not yet solved the problem of food and clothing, and it is difficult to spend money to prevent and control desertification. In 1999, the state invested more than 30 million yuan in desert control projects, mainly for the construction of desert control projects. The average investment per mu was 2.26 yuan based on the treated area, which was only enough to buy two or three small saplings, which was far from the actual needs (some experts believe that The annual cost of desertification control is 2 billion yuan). At present, in the northwest region, the cost of afforestation per acre is about 100 yuan, while the cost of afforestation per acre for desertification control projects is 500 to 600 yuan.

The past method was to mobilize farmers to invest in labor to make up for the lack of funds for afforestation. Under the conditions of today's market economy, this method of low investment levels coupled with administrative orders, rigid apportionment, and free use of labor in the planned economy era is increasingly unfeasible. What's more, the State Council has repeatedly stated that it is not allowed to increase the burden on farmers. If no additional measures are taken, With so much investment in sand control, future work is bound to decline. In fact, due to lack of funds, many key issues in desertification prevention and control, such as the promotion of water-saving technologies, breeding of excellent varieties, pest control, solar and wind energy development and utilization... cannot be solved; many desertification control forest farms and nurseries Grassroots desertification prevention and control units such as , desertification control stations, and protection stations have no guaranteed wages for their employees. Production and life are difficult, and normal desertification prevention and control work is difficult to carry out. At the same time, it also results in slow construction speed, low quality, scattered layout, and difficulty in forming a scale. ; The management and protection force is weak, and it is difficult to consolidate the results of afforestation and grass planting, etc. These current conditions are extremely inconsistent with the strategy of realizing national poverty alleviation and shifting the focus of economic construction to the central and western regions.

It is recommended that the country increase capital investment in the prevention and control of desertification. In addition to raising funds through multiple channels, it should be combined with comprehensive agricultural development, farmland capital construction, and engineering projects. It should also formulate some corresponding preferential policies, and who should implement the governance? Based on the principle of who develops, who benefits, governance methods such as desert sand auctions, leasing, transfers, and share cooperation are promoted to form a new situation in which the country, collectives, and individuals work together, and the whole society participates in desert control.

4. Establish a national leading group for desertification prevention and control

Desertification prevention and control is not a purely technical issue, but also a social issue and a management issue. It involves all aspects of society, economy, ecology and various government departments such as forestry, agriculture, water conservancy, and environmental protection. This is a complex system engineering. In the past, one of the main reasons why desertification prevention and control has been unsatisfactory is that various departments in society are doing their own thing and it is difficult to form a joint force. Even one department is controlling desertification while other departments are creating sand. All environmental problems develop horizontally across administrative regions, but government departments that solve environmental problems are designed vertically. If we adhere to this vertical administrative management model of departmental and geographical division, it will be impossible to fundamentally solve any horizontal environmental problems. Therefore, we must also design our environmental administrative management system horizontally to avoid conflicts, internal friction, dispersion and duplication between departments, and improve the overall efficiency of ecological construction projects. To this end, it is recommended that the National Coordination Group for Desertification Control be upgraded to the National Leading Group for Desertification Control, under the direct leadership of the State Council, to improve its authority and operability. According to the division of functions of the department, the office is still located in the State Forestry Administration. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the role of the "senior expert advisory group" to ensure the scientific and technological content of desertification prevention and control work and increase the transparency of science, technology and planning and design.

5. Incorporate environmental costs into the economic accounting system and use ecological construction as an indicator of political performance evaluation

Any economic development and construction will have a large or small negative impact on the ecological environment. With advantages comes disadvantages. However, whether there are greater benefits or greater harm, and how to achieve benefits and avoid harms, the choice must be made through an assessment of environmental costs. For example, in the past ten years, 220 million acres of grassland in Inner Mongolia have been damaged to varying degrees due to the digging of nostoc, of which 60 million acres have become desert, and the rest are also in the process of desertification. This causes direct economic losses of 3 billion yuan to the animal husbandry industry every year. The ecological damage is immeasurable, and it also triggers conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, causing social problems that affect national unity. Therefore, this kind of resource-plundering economic activity should be prohibited.

However, because for a long time, our performance evaluation of grassroots cadres has only included indicators of economic development but no indicators of ecological construction. Especially in terms of poverty alleviation goals, it has blindly emphasized increasing the number of livestock and food. Yield, thus encouraging herdsmen to use pastures and farmers to destroy forests and grasslands to open up wasteland for farming. The resulting water and soil erosion and land desertification are not included in the assessment. Therefore, in order to maximize the rapid growth of economic indicators, some government officials and government departments are willing to sacrifice the ecological environment in exchange for "political achievements" during their term of office. This is the root cause of the eagerness for quick success and short-term government actions and decision-making.

It can be seen that environmental problems are rooted in the structure and system of our society and economy. Without changing the socio-economic structures and systems that are incompatible with the goals of ecological construction, efforts to improve the environment will not achieve much. At present, what we urgently need to solve is to incorporate environmental costs into the economic accounting system and include the specific content of ecological construction in the performance evaluation indicators of governments at all levels.

6. Strictly control the population capacity of the environment, and combine the return of farmland with the "retirement of people"

The environmental capacity of the population is the basis for formulating social development plans. The ecology of western my country is extremely fragile, and it is easy to destroy but difficult to restore. The “vast land and sparsely populated area” is only a superficial phenomenon. Because environmental capacity is so limited, many areas are already oversaturated with population. Relevant data show that the total population of desertified areas in northern my country has reached 400 million, an increase of 160‰ since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Only 4.5% of Xinjiang's 1.6 million square kilometers of land can provide oases for human survival and reproduction. The current population density in agricultural areas is 200-400 people per square kilometer, which is comparable to the population density in the eastern coastal provinces.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were only 1.5 million people in the area surrounding the Taklimakan Desert, with a population density of 2 people per square kilometer (including the desert and Gobi). By the 1980s, the population had increased to 5.13 million, with a population density of 8 people per square kilometer, exceeding the United Nations’ guidelines. The critical indicator of population density in desert areas is the standard of 7 people. The reasonable population density in the river valleys of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is no more than 20 people per square kilometer, but now it reaches 90 people in this area, which greatly exceeds the land's carrying capacity. Over-cultivation and grazing have caused rampant sandstorms. The southwest region has high mountains and steep slopes, infertile soil, and severe rocky desertification after vegetation destruction. Stony desertification causes the land to permanently lose productivity, making it a more serious problem than desertification and more difficult to control.

The work of returning farmland to forest and grassland should be combined with "retiring people". In areas with poor living conditions, the population that exceeds the environmental capacity should be gradually moved out and moved to small towns, so as to fundamentally solve the problem of returning farmland. After repeated problems and "living on the mountain", the problem of continued destruction of vegetation has given nature a chance to breathe and recover; at the same time, the development of small towns with a certain scale effect can absorb the rural surplus labor force and transfer the agricultural surplus population, and also It can drive the development of a variety of industries, increase people's income, and ease the contradiction between population pressure and land carrying capacity in the west.

7. Protect, restore and rebuild desert ecosystems

The fundamental reason for the formation and expansion of desertification is desert ecosystems (including deserts, Gobi systems, grasslands in arid and semi-arid areas) System, forest system and wetland system) are caused by the intensive development and utilization of water resources, biological resources and land resources in the system, resulting in the inherent stability and balance imbalance within the system. In the past, we planted trees and grass and used biological and engineering measures to prevent desertification, while on the other hand we destroyed the desert ecosystem and created new desertified land. In fact, it is precisely because of the destruction of the desert ecosystem that although we have built the "Three North" protective forests and implemented desertification prevention and control projects, we still have not been able to curb the pace of desertification expansion as a whole. It can be said that the real reason for the frequent sandstorms in the past half century is not too little artificial vegetation, but too much destruction of natural vegetation. Local improvements in the small environment cannot offset the overall adverse changes in the larger environment.

In view of this, it is necessary for us to adjust the strategy of desertification prevention and control, from a one-sided emphasis on the development of artificial vegetation to the active development of artificial-natural trees, shrubs and grass composite vegetation; from simply protecting oases to actively protecting oases, including the entire desert ecosystem. Only by rebuilding the desert ecosystem can we fundamentally curb the spread of desertification, reverse the passive situation in desertification control and soil erosion control, and effectively improve the ecology and environment of northwest my country.