'Warrior of sand' turns deserts into fertile land

English>>China Society

Editor's Pick

'Warrior of sand' turns deserts into fertile land

( ) 09:10, August 24, 2013

Email|Print|Comments

twitter

facebook

Sina Microblog

Ten years ago, the barren and sandstorm-stricken Maowusu Desert had no roads, no vegetation and no means of transportation. But now with trees and grass, the deserts are becoming "fertile land" that creates oil products.

Zhang Yinglong, 50, is the head of a shelterbelt in Maowusu Desert of Shenmu, a remote county of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The place regularly gets battered by ferocious sandstorms and residents suffered from winds and drought before 2003.

Zhang used to work for a coal company in Beijing, with an annual income of 200,000 yuan (32,660 U.S. dollars) to 300,000 yuan.

He witnessed the ravages of desertification, with families forced to flee and houses buried. But he launched himself into the battle to "fix" the dunes of the Maowusu, even though not intentionally.

"I got drunk and promised the village official that I would help them 'fix' the dunes," Zhang said. "When I woke up, I totally forgot, but as a man I had to walk the talk."

Zhang, whose face is deeply tanned after a decade of working outdoors, said he "shifted from the richest to the poorest man in Shenmu overnight" to get help.

As a part of The Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, a national project aimed at fighting land desertification, and the sandstorm source control program in the Beijing-Tianjin region, Zhang has spent more than 70 million yuan, using his own wealth, government subsidies and social donations. He even sold his apartments.

Zhang's shelterbelt covers 428,000 mu (around 28,530 hectares). It has nearly 24 million trees to prevent the advancing dunes. The vegetation coverage improved from 5 percent in 2003 to nearly 60 percent at the end of 2012.

Zhang said, "It is the deserts that changed me, rather than vice versa."

His family and friends did not understand him at the beginning. Someone even considered him as a lunatic. But he never gave up.

All around, the sand dunes are chequered with squares of green as bit by bit vegetation takes over.

Zhang believes the fight with the sand is not contained to afforestation. "Sand is a usable resource. I want to obtain the ecological and economic benefits."