Desertification was listed as one of the Top Ten stories of last year by a consortium of the country s leading papers and wire services. Battling desertification is now an priority in the environmental portion of China s new five-year plan. Though Beijing may be in the eye of this sandstorm, the crisis is threatening much of the country. In the north, nomadic tribes battle immigrant farmers for dwindling pasture land as the sands encroach. In the west, firewood and moss collectors strip the earth of grasses that have sustained ethnic herders for centuries.
Desertification is part of a wider dilemma regarding land and water use in China.
Every year the list of cities facing rationing water grows longer. Water riots flared up around the country. Although few may associate China with hotspots like the Sahara, over a quarter of the country is desert 1 million square miles. And, by official estimates, about 1,000 square miles of precious land turns to sand every year. AS China already struggles to feed nearly a quarter of the world s population with just seven percent of its cultivatable land, that loss has become unacceptable.