三级aa视频在线观看-三级国产-三级国产精品一区二区-三级国产三级在线-三级国产在线

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
China
Home / China / Environment

Legacy of 'six old men' who halted sandstorms

Decades-long effort against dry climate plants 30,000 hectares of trees

By Yuan Shenggao | China Daily | Updated: 2024-11-28 10:41
Share
Share - WeChat
A group photo of three generations of workers in Babusha, Northwest China's Gansu province, who have devoted themselves to combating desertification and protecting residents from the ravages of sandstorms. CHINA DAILY

Three generations of workers in Northwest China's Gansu province, represented by "the six old men" on Babusha forest farm, have devoted themselves to combating desertification and protecting residents from the ravages of sandstorms.

Babusha, the largest sand dune at the southern edge of the Tengger Desert in Gansu, was a major source of sandstorms in the 1980s, when the southward movement of the desert devoured farmland and villages at a rate of 7.5 meters per year, affecting the livelihoods of more than 30,000 local inhabitants.

Now, the southward expansion has been stopped by a green belt that spans 10 kilometers in length and 8 km in width — a project that has lasted upward of 40 years.

The dramatic reversal stems from the decision made by "the six old men" back in 1981, when Guo Chaoming and five other villagers in Gulang county rented 5,000 hectares of sandy land and founded the Babusha forest farm. Their original aspiration was to prevent recurring sandstorms from destroying their crops. At the time, Guo, the oldest of the six, was already 61, while Zhang Runyuan, the youngest among them, was not yet 50.

The six men planted 667 hectares of saplings in the sandy land, with an expectation that 70 percent of them would survive. However, after the first sandstorm, no more than 30 percent of the saplings survived.

Through trial and error, the men discovered that saplings planted near grass clumps had a higher survival rate. The following year, they buried wheat straw around the tree pits to fix the sand, thereby successfully improving the sapling survival rate. And this approach — using a tree and a handful of grass to hold the sand and prevent wind erosion — became one of the most cost-effective and practical technologies for desertification control in China.

Planting trees in the desert is difficult, but maintaining them is even harder. To protect the trees they had painstakingly planted, the six men lived and worked on the site for years. They dug a pit in the sand, propped it up with wooden poles, and covered it with straw to create a rudimentary shelter. They used bricks to support a cooking pot, drank boiled water and ate steamed buns when hungry. Their living conditions didn't improve until 1983, when they built three rooms nearby with the help from the local forestry bureau.

In the eyes of the six men, the Babusha forest farm became their most precious possession. Even in the 1990s, when they faced financial difficulties and had no source of income, they couldn't bring themselves to cut down a single tree or pull up a single blade of grass to trade for money. Two of the six died of illness in 1991 and 1992. In 2005 and 2018, two others passed away. Their children and grandchildren took up the torch and have carried on the unfinished business of desertification control.

Across generations, the efforts of workers at Babusha forest farm have transformed vast sandy and windy tracts of desert into grassland and forest. The area of sand fixation, forest cultivation and grassland protection has surpassed 30,000 hectares, according to official data. Within the protected area of the Babusha forest farm, vegetation coverage surged from under 3 percent before management to more than 75 percent presently.

The determined efforts of "the six old men" and three generations of workers to turn the desert into an oasis earned them the titles of "Model of the Times" and "Most Beautiful Fighters" in 2019.

 

 

 

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
 
主站蜘蛛池模板: 欧美一级黄色大片 | xxoo做爰猛烈动态视频网站 | 全部免费特黄特色大片视频 | 国产精品视频免费一区二区三区 | 国产亚洲福利 | 99久久免费午夜国产精品 | 欧美a欧美1级 | 国产在线成人a | 伊人亚洲综合网成人 | 一亚洲精品一区 | 性做久久久久久久久男女 | 亚洲精选| 在线免费观看色视频 | 欧美国产亚洲精品a第一页 欧美国产亚洲一区 | 看久久 | 午夜国产福利在线 | 黄色片子网站 | 欧美日韩中文在线视频 | 国产欧美日韩在线不卡第一页 | 日韩中文字幕免费版 | a黄色一级 | 青青青青在线成人视99 | 亚洲日本乱码中文在线电影亚洲 | 国产老湿机福利视频在线观看 | 久久久久在线观看 | 妖精视频在线播放 | 欧美ol丝袜高跟秘书在线播放 | 久久99综合国产精品亚洲首页 | 999久爱视频在线观看 | 黄免费看| 性做久久久久久久免费观看 | 国产精品99久久免费观看 | 日韩毛片免费视频 | 自偷自偷自亚洲首页精品 | 中文字幕日韩亚洲 | 欧美片免费观看网址 | 国产高清一级片 | 999久久久国产精品 999久久久精品视频在线观看 | 一级做a爰视频免费观看2019 | 黄色片播放器 | 黄色的一级片 |