Washington: A new report indicates that in the last ten years, China has displayed an incredible feat of environmental engineering by adding over 3 million hectares of new forests, in order to combat deforestation.
According to Discovery News, a new report issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shows that deforestation decreased around the world over the last ten years, but China is miles ahead of the pack.
Since the year 2000, the country added over 3 million hectares of new forest, an area over twice the size of the American state of Connecticut.
With desertification in the western part of the country sending ever more sky-darkening sandstorms blowing into Beijing and the populated east, the government decided to enact a massive reforestation project ten years ago, and it’s been a resounding success so far.
China has a huge, impoverished rural population that is not in a position to care much about how conservation or land use with an eye toward the future.
These are people struggling to feed themselves, and the nation’s track record of being hard on the land reflects that.
But it appears their powerful central government is turning things around for them.
ANI
First Published: Monday, March 29, 2010, 15:16