National Plan to Tackle Soil Erosion

The State Council recently approved the National Soil and Water Conservation Plan (2015-30), the first of such kind in China, and a milestone in the country’s efforts to prevent soil erosion.

China is one of the countries hardest hit by soil erosion, which affects nearly 2.95 million sq km, or 30.72 percent of its territory, according to a Ministry of Water Resources official. This problem costs China 67,000 sq km of arable land each year, seriously jeopardizing its ecological and food security. On parts of the Loess Plateau the surface soil is diminishing at the alarming rate of one cm per year. Some areas in Northeast China have lost their entire layer of fertile dark soil. Soil erosion on this scale constitutes a major environmental problem for China, and massive urban development is the main culprit. After consultation with the parties concerned, the Ministry of Water Resources and other relevant departments compiled the National Soil and Water Conservation Plan over a fouryear period.