Theory and Practice of Soil Loss Control in Eastern China

After the 1998 flood of the Yangtze River, one of the world s most important rivers, environmental experts realized that, to control flooding, much more attention must be paid to vegetation cover on bare lands, thin forest land, and shrub-covered land in mountain areas. In 1999, an environmental monitoring project of the forests in 11 provinces of the Yangtze River basin was undertaken. This book reports on soil loss prediction and the successful practices of soil loss control in eastern China in recent years.In recent decades in eastern China great progress towards the ecological restoration of bare lands and steeply sloping cultivated land suffering from serious erosion has been made through reforestation. This book introduced several soil loss control models suitable for land use strategies and many techniques of reforestation, focusing on improving the living standards of farmers. These strategies include local recycling, which combines the use of trees (fruit tree, herb, bamboo), crops for feeding livestock, use of animal wastes for biogas and fertilizer, and fish production, and a large scale recycling, which fosters the interaction between the countryside of the mountainous areas and the urban areas in the lower elevations. The local recycling can alleviate poverty for farmers and provide fuel material that replaces dependence on twigs and tree litter, protecting the reforested young trees from being harmed. The large scale recycling creates a more harmonious society, promoting the common health and wealth of the countryside and the city. The most comprehensive and successful models of reforestation in eastern China are presented for readers, enabling them to better understand the hard work of Chinese towards peaceful goals.